Liam Scales books Celtic sitdown over future as Irishman prepares to turn Aberdeen avenger at Tynecastle

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Fortunately for Aberdeen’s avengers, the plate barely had time to cool.

The Dons suffered embarrassment the last time they took the trip to Tynecastle, suffering a 5-0 shellacking in January that contributed to Jim Goodwin losing his job. But just a matter of weeks later, new boss Barry Robson’s team gained redemption, hammering Hearts 3-0 at Pittodrie to further fuel their belief third place might not be out of the reckoning after all.

Today the two sides lock horns in Gorgie again in the Premiership game of the weekend. Liam Scales is adamant there is no talk of revenge but is hell-bent nonetheless on breaking Hearts all over again to all but seal the best-of-the-rest spot. He insists that horror show at the turn of the year has already been shown as an off-day. The Irishman said: “It is completely different.

“We are a different team now and a lot of things have changed. We proved that point when we beat them up at Pittodrie a couple of months ago.

“I don’t think that is really on the mind of anyone at the moment. We just know what is riding on this, which is a massive game. How? Well if we win we can finish third, that is the main motivation.”

Aberdeen went into the World Cup break in third place but an almighty collapse after the restart saw them drop 10 points behind the Jambos and saw Goodwin getting sacked. It came after a horror run where they were dumped out of the Scottish Cup by Darvel and hammered on both sides of the capital.

Third, at that point, looked like a long shot. Scales believes it shows the progress Aberdeen have made under Robson. He said: “At that time the only thing on our mind was trying to string a couple of results together to turn the form around.