Andy Considine hopes he has repaid the faith of manager Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes.
Dons favourite Considine has enjoyed one of his most consistent seasons in a red shirt, playing 39 times and scoring six.
He has enjoyed greater time in his preferred position of centre-back, with injuries to Scott McKenna and Ash Taylor, and been touted for a belated Scotland call-up.
Considine and Niall McGinn are the players remaining from McInnes’ original squad when he took over seven years ago and the defender he has proved his worth again to the Aberdeen boss.
He said: “The season has been good for me. The great thing is being able to be consistent and I feel I have done that now. I have played out of position for 90 per cent of the last six years playing at left-back.
“I have just had to adapt to it but the main thing is getting that shirt on a Saturday and from there you have to be consistent enough that the manager wants to play you week in week out.
“Thankfully, the manager has done that and shown a lot of faith in me by putting me in his team. It is definitely a case of getting better with experience. I know where to be and what I have to do.
“Sometimes when you are younger you jump into a challenge that you think you can win but you quickly learn where it might be better to jockey or stand off and cut out the space. You definitely learn and improve with experience.”
His six goals match his best tally – which came in the 2016-17 season – and only McGinn (seven) and Sam Cosgrove (23) found the net on more occasions than Considine.
That put him in the frame for a Scotland call for the Uefa Nations League play-off against Israel, prior to football’s shutdown.
Considine added: “It has been a good year and it is always great when you are scoring goals as well. I have scored six and it is not massive compared to say big Sam but to a defender it is still quite a lot.
“There have been a few goals in there as well which makes things even more enjoyable. On a personal level, it has been a decent season. There was a lot of talk about the Scotland squad which was nice although the play-off game against Israel ended up being cancelled with the shutdown.
“I am not getting any younger but if you go out and perform and do your best and score a few goals then you just never know what the national manager is thinking.”