Aberdeen attacker Niall McGinn hailed a perfect performance in the 3-0 win against Hamilton yesterday, and is aiming to end Hearts’ hopes of catching his side at Tynecastle on Friday.
Derek McInnes’ side kept the pressure on Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership with an impressive 3-0 win at Pittodrie yesterday.
The win extended the Dons’ lead on the Jambos to 12 points, but the gap could be back to nine if Robbie Neilson’s side win at Inverness tomorrow.
Hearts believe they can still catch the Dons but McGinn is eager to extinguish those hopes and focus on catching the Hoops at the top of the league in the post-split fixtures.
He said: “Hearts are on our tails, but we know if we go there and win on Friday it may just be enough to see them off.
“We can only look after ourselves and we’re trying to win our remaining games and see where it takes us. It’s still close at the top and now we move on to Friday night at Hearts.
“It’s going to be a tough game, but it’s one we are looking forward to. We showed at the start of the season we can beat them but they showed they can beat us in the Scottish Cup.
Simon Church, McGinn and Kenny McLean scored the goals in the opening 33 minutes as the Dons swept and abject Accies aside in clinical fashion to move to within four points of the champions.
McGinn believes the manner of the victory was important for his side as it tries to keep title hopes alive.
He said: “Coming off the back of a disappointing result at Motherwell it was important we bounced back.
“The international break was great for Simon Church, Kenny McLean and Jonny Hayes too and they were excellent in the first half as we saw off a good Hamilton team who are playing for their lives in the bottom six.
“When you come off a bad result you want to go back on the pitch as quickly as possible and it was hard for the manager with players away, but we looked fresh and our we showed our quality in the first half.
“Celtic had a good result on Saturday and they are a hard team to stop, but if we play as we know we can we will win more games than we don’t.
“If we play like we did in the first half against Hamilton there is no reason why we cannot win every game.
“We were full of energy and created a lot of chances. With a clean sheet too it was a perfect performance.”