Victory against Dundee United at Tannadice means Aberdeen can start aiming for the European spots.
The encouraging 3-1 win has moved the Dons up to fifth spot and only two points behind Hibernian, albeit having played a game more.
They take on Hearts at Pittodrie on their next outing which represents a great chance to close the gap on another team above them in the fight to qualify for Europe.
The Dons are set to ramp up their hunt for a new manager so time will tell if Barry Robson is still going to be in the dugout for that one, but whatever happens, he has managed to bring some solidity back to Aberdeen.
Three wins from five games is a good return when you consider he inherited a team who were in a terrible place after losing 6-0 at Hibernian and having been knocked out of the Scottish Cup by non-league Darvel.
Ex-Reds boss Goodwin has his work cut out at United
It was an unhappy start to Jim Goodwin’s time at Dundee United. He admitted in his pre-match press conference that people had told him he was mad to take the United job.
I watched United lose 4-0 at Ross County in Liam Fox’s final game in charge and they were all over the place defensively.
I’m sure Jim realises now he has a big task on his hands to try to prevent the Tangerines from going down.
Things look far more positive from an Aberdeen perspective.
There were several players who impressed against United. Duk’s finish for his goal was a superb piece of skill and I imagine that will be a big contender for Aberdeen’s goal of the season.
Graeme Shinnie has also proven exactly why Barry was right to give him the captain’s armband.
He may only be a loan player at the moment, but his passion for Aberdeen was clear to see at the full-time whistle.
I was also delighted to see Marley Watkins come off the bench and score almost immediately.
He hasn’t been playing as much as he would like, but I know him from my time at Caley Thistle and he is a great lad.
He will be desperate to contribute and he showed what he can do at Tannadice.
Hopefully it is the start of him being more involved in the team.
A fan of evening kick-offs
It is a shame Aberdeen don’t have a game this weekend as I’m sure the players would be keen to play again after such a big win.
There was a huge amount of interest in the game on Saturday and the 6pm kick-off definitely added an extra element to proceedings – both good and bad.
The Dons released a statement condemning some of the behaviour from their fans on Saturday with objects thrown at former boss Jim Goodwin and a smoke bomb almost hitting their own player, Ryan Duncan.
None of us want to see that happening and hopefully the culprits are dealt with accordingly.
But I hope those incidents don’t prevent more games from taking place at 6pm on a Saturday.
The later kick-off seems to create a real atmosphere at matches and I like having a game to look forward to after the 3pm games have finished.
I also think the later kick-offs give supporters who may be involved in youth and amateur football on Saturday afternoons the chance to go to games.
We are always trying to encourage more people to get to games and the attendance for the later kick-offs on a Saturday have been very good.
Ross County right to be angry
I can understand why Malky Mackay was unhappy with the refereeing decisions in Ross County’s 2-0 defeat by Motherwell.
I thought the officials got two big decisions wrong, as I felt the Staggies should have had a penalty when Alex Iacovitti went down in the area. It was initially given before a VAR check saw the decision overturned.
An even bigger mistake was the red card for Jack Baldwin.
I don’t think Kevin van Veen was denied a goalscoring opportunity and the Staggies had a covering defender who looked likely to get back and clear the danger.
A yellow card would have been the right call, but that decision tipped the game heavily in favour of the Steelmen.
County played well for large parts of the game so they shouldn’t feel too despondent in defeat.
Caley Jags dreaming of Hampden
Caley Thistle may have picked the right time to hit form after their 2-1 victory at Ayr United.
It sets them up nicely for a huge Scottish Cup quarter-final against Kilmarnock this Friday night.
I will be going along to that one and it could be a great cup tie.
Caley Thistle’s difficult financial position has been made clear over the past week. Their prolonged spell in the Championship has come at a great cost and it is difficult for full-time teams to operate at this level without the money on offer in the top flight.
A semi-final at Hampden would be a welcome boost – especially as the money from both semi-finals is shared equally among the four clubs.
Kilmarnock haven’t been in great form in recent weeks, so if Caley Thistle play the way they can they have every chance of going through.
Conversation