McGhee has faith in Dons stars

Mark McGhee is confident Aberdeen will show their spirit when they bid to avert lingering relegation concerns against St Johnstone on Sunday. McGhee felt his players failed to match the determination of Kilmarnock after losing the opening goal in last weekend's 2-0 defeat at Rugby Park.But the Dons manager claims a lack of resolve has not been the cause of the club's failure to make the top six of the SPL for the first time in six years.Aberdeen went on to lose 3-1 against Rangers on Wednesday and could go into the Pittodrie clash just six points off the bottom of the SPL.But McGhee, who previously bemoaned long-term injuries to Zander Diamond and Sone Aluko, feels their troubles this season have purely been down to a lack of quality."We have had good results along the way where the spirit hasn't been in question," McGhee said."In many ways, even in some of the poorer results and performances, it's one of the things we couldn't question."I'm with them every day and I have a sense of whether there is a spirit or not, and I don't delude myself, and it's never really got away from us in that respect."Most of the time we have just not been good enough. It's not because we haven't been trying, we have just been found not to be good enough."The spirit was there the other night and we hope it is again on Sunday."When it wasn't maybe there as much as we would have liked was when we went a goal down at Kilmarnock."That's when you need the real spirit, not when you go a goal down at Ibrox. It's a bit easier to rally then."St Johnstone will ask more questions from us in some ways than Rangers were able to do."McGhee, who handed 16-year-old Jack Grimmer his debut at Ibrox, is keen to banish all fears of going down in order to build for next season."We have six games left and we're only nine points above Falkirk," the former Motherwell manager added."We would like to close that out as quickly as possible so we can give one or two young boys like Ryan Jack a bit of a run."St Johnstone could yet sneak into the top six with victory at Aberdeen, but would need Hearts to lose at home to Kilmarnock on Saturday to retain any hope.However, McGhee is not hoping for a Hearts victory to ensure there is less motivation for the Perth side."That would be wishing ill on St Johnstone," McGhee said. "I think they deserve to be in the top six as much as Hearts do."If they are still in with a chance on Sunday we'll deal with the consequences."If it means St Johnstone don't have a chance because Hearts have done the business, that will be a shame."

Source: Team_Talk