Aberdeen captain Joe Lewis believes he and his team-mates have given incoming manager Stephen Glass a platform to build from after recording back-to-back wins.
The Dons recovered from a poor first half display to beat St Johnstone 1-0 at McDiarmid Park on Saturday with the victory coming a week after the 1-0 Scottish Cup third round win at Dumbarton.
Glass will formally take charge tomorrow and Lewis hopes his new boss will be encouraged by recent results.
He said: “Although it was only a 1-0 win, and some of the play was a bit edgy at times, a lot of it was really good and I’m sure the manager will be pleased with the result. We’re looking forward to a good week with him.
“I’ve had a couple of chats with him. He’s looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to coming in. He’ll have Allan Russell coming in as well to help him, but I can’t speak highly enough of Paul Sheerin.
“He’s left it in a good state with two wins in the last two games.
“We’ve been short at the back, but had another clean sheet, which is pleasing. It’s a good position for the new manager coming in and I look forward to him coming in this week.”
Sheerin has pushed the academy graduates during his three games in charge and both Jack MacKenzie and Calvin Ramsay featured in Saturday’s win in Perth.
With promoting young talent part of the new manager’s remit, Lewis believes Glass will be pleased with the emerging youngsters coming through the ranks at Pittodrie.
The goalkeeper said: “We’ve got a lot of young players. I think we had six academy graduates involved against St Johnstone – Andy Considine doesn’t count – but the other five certainly do. You look at Dean Campbell and Connor McLennan especially, you forget how young they are because they’ve been around for quite a while.
“Jack MacKenzie has been fantastic. For them to take everything on board that’s been asked and play away from home – on a terrible pitch – the way that they have been asked to, playing out from the back, taking risks and trying to draw them on to us to then get past the press and eliminate some of their players, to do that shows a lot of character and that’s fantastic going forward.
“We know that they’ve got the ability and hopefully that will give them belief.”
Aberdeen’s attention reverts to the cup this weekend with Livingston set to visit Pittodrie on Sunday for the fourth round tie.
Lewis believes it is a tie his side can look forward to with confidence.
He said: “There’s loads to play for. Third place is a big ask, but we believe that is there for us. We know we need to step it up a gear and continue to improve, but we’ve got the Scottish Cup as well.
“Livingston took a sore one against Celtic and they’ll be looking to bounce back and we know what they can do and what they’re capable of.
“The result over St Johnstone will help us going into that last bit of the season.”