McGhee delighted with spirited Dons

Mark McGhee believes his Aberdeen side are on the up after Darren Mackie's late strike secured a 1-0 SPL win at St Johnstone on Saturday. It appeared the Dons, who opened up the season with a 4-0 hammering of Hamilton, would have to settle for a point as the two sides struggled to carve out clear goalmouth opportunities.However, Mackie's strike five minutes from time ensured the optimism which has marked Aberdeen's opening to the new campaign continues as they went top of the embryonic Scottish Premier League with back-to-back victories."Getting the late goal tells me there's hope, that there's change a-coming," said McGhee."I'm not going to take anything for granted, it's two games and two different kinds of performances, and we've just got to keep going and keep demanding of each other."There is a spirit and there's a determination about them that was missing last season, that gives you the opportunity to win games 1-0 away from home. I'm well pleased with that aspect of it."I think it was a deserved win. We stuck to our task, we kept it tight and defended well and gave ourselves the opportunity to win the game."Before the game we spoke more than anything about the clean sheet and defending as a team, about not getting beaten and giving ourselves the opportunity to win the game, which was exactly how it worked out."McGhee, who praised the influence of skipper Paul Hartley in fostering a new-found resolute team spirit at the club, felt his team could have been ahead before Mackie's winner, with Andrew Considine's first-half header being ruled out by referee Steven McLean.The official also denied the Dons, who saw Hartley net a hat-trick of penalties against Hamilton last weekend, what McGhee thought should have been a second-half spot-kick.He added: "Andrew Considine said it came off his shoulder a little bit but he didn't feel as if it was a foul."I would have to see it again but our boys maintained that they didn't feel there was anything wrong with it."And I felt quite strongly that we should have had a penalty at the other end as well."Chris Maguire should have been awarded a penalty. Whether it was because we had three last week and you're only allowed three in every two games I don't know but we felt we had strong claims for a penalty."St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes remained philosophical in defeat, insisting there had been little between the teams throughout a tight 90 minutes.The Saints boss, who admitted Kevin Rutkiewicz's early miss had been a 'key moment' in the game, said: "I think we just have to take our medicine and it's important we don't over-analyse it."There were small margins in the game. They got the break with the clearance and with the goal when it went through Danny Grainger's legs and trundled into the corner."But there was nothing between the teams. It was hard-fought and fiercely contested and there wasn't a lot of pretty stuff on show from either team."I was hoping we would cause them more problems in the wider areas of the pitch but we never did that anywhere near enough to go and win the game, but I certainly didn't think we were going to lose the game."Aberdeen worked hard for the three points but we'll pick ourselves up and get ready to go again."

Source: Team_Talk