Mats Knoester is certain that Aberdeen will secure third place fortunes in the Premiership this season, but only if they keep playing with bravery.

The defender, who joined the Dons in the January transfer window, suffered his first defeat in red when Jimmy Thelin's men fell to a 5-1 thumping at Celtic Park in midweek.

But the Reds had built a healthy run of form with three wins on the bounce, and gave the Hoops a scare before being overwhelmed by the runaway league leaders.

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They should have gone ahead and given Celtic a fright, but it wasn't to be in front of goal despite both Oday Dabbagh and Kevin Nisbet testing the defence.

It was a plucky performance that ultimately ended pointless after the champions turned on the style in front of goal, but Knoester insists Aberdeen were right to stick to their attack-minded principles at Parkhead, writes the Daily Record.

Next up is a monumental clash with third-place rivals Dundee United at Pittodrie on Sunday while resurgent Hibs are breathing down their necks too with St Mirren and Hearts still in the mix.

Winning the Scottish Cup would secure lucrative Euro group stage football again. So would third place if Celtic win the top flight and the cup.

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But Knoester reckons sticking to their attacking style will get the job done, as he said: "I think we've shown the past few weeks that we can be confident by the results we took out of those games before Celtic. I'm pretty confident we can go for the third spot.‌

"I do think it's a better thing to stick to your way of playing because we still created against Celtic. A lot of opponents just sit back, go down and still lose, so I think it's much better to try and be brave and stick to your way of playing football.

"If we could have punished them in the beginning, that can be like the difference between turning a game around. The biggest difference was they are so clinical. So one chance, or not even a hundred percent chance, is a goal.

"That was basically the story of the first half and also sometimes we missed a little bit of smartness. Like making a foul, taking the speed out of the game, but I think we have to take our lesson out of it and not be too negative.

"The chances we created here, the way we tried to play football sometimes and not just kick it long and wait for them. We were sometimes very strong in the counter-attack, we exposed them in the transition. Of course Sunday is a big game. If we win that, you don't forget about Tuesday, but at least we can turn it into positive again.

"There's a lot to take from this game. Celtic is a great team and that you can see that in the clinical finish, in how effective they are. Still, we got our chances. So if the result is good this weekend, I think we can say that we took our lesson."

Knoester won the Hungarian top flight with Ferencvaros two years ago and the 26-year-old is desperate to taste success with the Dons too. Arriving in the midst of a horror run of 14-games without a win in the league couldn’t have filled the former Netherlands youth cap with confidence.

But he quickly picked up on a team spirit that’s driving Thelin’s red revolution and played his part in turning the wretched run round with three victories in his first three games. Knoester said: "What I noticed in the first few weeks is that there's really a team that's going for it together.

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"I also heard that even though the results were not good before, still there was a good vibe, still there was no pointing fingers and stuff like that. So I think there's really a team on the pitch and also off the pitch, that's the thing I noticed so far."

That team bond has helped Knoester settle quicker than he ever could have imagined in the Granite City. He’s started the last four games too. But he insists the Red Army have yet to see the best of him.

He said: "In terms of fitness, I can still make steps because I haven't played that many games before coming here. I can still make steps in that part that will also allow me to play a bit easier physically but I'm happy that I could perform, I think I performed decent.

"I settled pretty fast. I really mean that. How the team, the staff, people in Aberdeen, treated me coming to the club. I think that really helped. So, yeah, I feel like I'm settled in already, except from getting a house and stuff like that but in the club, I feel comfortable.

"I’m in a temporary apartment, so that's what I mean with feeling welcome, they arrange the temporary apartment for me and stuff. I experienced a lot of other things in other situations so, I'm very happy here the first few weeks, even though we lost 5-1".