Captain Sensible

Saturday's Man of the Match Anderson scored the first goal in Aberdeen's 3-0 win against Livingston, a result which takes the Dons into the top six of the SPL for the first time since November 2005.

Aberdeen's minimum requirement for the season of a Top 6 berth looked like fading away but Anderson is confident his team can end the campaign strongly.

Anderson told the Press & Journal: "At the start of the season our aim was to make the Top 6 and take it from there. Last season, we managed to do that with games to spare, but it looks like going to the last game this time.

"It is still in our own hands and although people will be looking at it as a disappointing season for us, we still have a lot to play for. Come the end of the season we can look at where we finish and assess it, but there are still eight games to go and an awful lot of points to play for."

The captain's sixth goal of the season helped the Dons settle on Saturday, and he knows how important it was to beat Livingston comfortably after the disappointment of losing the last two games - the first time the Dons have lost two games in a row all season.

Anderson said: "It was a huge result for us. We are trying to get into the Top 6 and we are running out of games. I don't think anyone expected us to take anything from Celtic, but to lose to Dunfermline was very disappointing."

The Dons face Motherwell at Pittodrie on Saturday, and Russell is aware of the importance this fixture will have as far as the Top 6 is concerned.

He said: "Motherwell is going to be a huge game but we are looking forward to it after this win. The fact they haven't won puts us in a good position, but we have been here before and not taken advantage of it.

"[Saturday's] was one of those games where we managed to stretch a team and we looked much stronger as a result. Hopefully we can do the same against Motherwell."