Aberdeen finding their groove after shaky start

Saturday's hard-fought victory over Dundee at Dens Park meant Aberdeen stretched their unbeaten run to eight games in all competitions after a shaky start to the season.

Jimmy Thelin's side now haven't lost since October. That was a 2-1 defeat by Hibernian at Pittodrie - a game that came off the back of a 6-0 demolition by AEK Athens in the Greek capital.

But after a string of disappointing results earlier in the campaign - including losses to newly-promoted Falkirk, a Premier Sports Cup exit to Motherwell and a 3-2 defeat in their Conference League opener with Shakhtar Donetsk - the resurgent Dons have now won five and drawn three of their past eight.

The 3-1 win at Dens Park took the Scottish Cup holders into the top six - and Thelin's men will be hoping they can take that momentum into a busy festive period.

"The team is growing," the Swedish manager said after the game. "It's a long, long season and it's so important to grow and evolve all the time.

"We go in the right direction. We have shown this now in so many away games that we can stay calm and also found gaps in transitions and used them really, really well.

"The most important for us is that we take the steps in the right direction and get a little bit better every week and that's what I'm happy for the players.

"The players share responsibility and we can go out with energy every game and increase the energy when we need to and I think that's really important for us when it's such a tight schedule."

Strasbourg and Kilmarnock are both set to visit Pittodrie this week on Thursday and Sunday, respectively.