Delighted Derek McInnes reckons he won’t need to spend big in the transfer window to beat Rangers to second after watching his Dons dazzle at Tynecastle.
The Aberdeen boss was thrilled to see his side dominate Hearts on their home patch in a game that could have been far more emphatic than Jonny Hayes’s 66th-minute strike.
McInnes said: “We’ll be trying to see what we can do in the January window but when I have a fully-fit squad as I do just now, you wouldn’t think there’s too much we need to do.
“We’ve had a fully-fit squad for the past five or six weeks and that’s helped with the performance.
“But it would be remiss of me not to see if there are one or two players out there who can maybe help us finish even stronger and give us more confidence.
“The break will help us. This is the third year in a row we’ve come back early for European football and that had a part to play in the second half of the season. We were so dependent on the same 11 to 13 boys so hopefuly the fact we haven’t been that needy on them this season will reduce our need for reinforcements.
“There’s loads of things you need to do well when you come to Tynecastle. Hearts have good players and it was important to stop them having an influence on the game and I think for the majority of the game we did that.
“I wasn’t worried that the goal wasn’t going to come. When you hear the Hearts fans boo at half-time that’s one part of the job done but we were conscious of the fact we had to ask more of ourselves to get the three points.”
Hearts boss Ian Cathro said: “When the game becomes a bit of a battle, like it did tonight, we need to be stronger.”
Cathro hit back at Kris Boyd after the player turned pundit accused him of hiding in the corner on his laptop when the pair were studying for their UEFA Pro Licence.
The Hearts gaffer said: “It’s misinformed of course. When I was doing that course at the same time as Kris I was at Valencia.
“I was on the course but I had a job to do as well. We had games to play.”