Rae: I’m not Don and dusted yet

Aberdeen midfielder Gavin Rae is aiming to finish the season on a high as he looks to extend his Pittodrie career. The former Scotland international is out of contract at the end of the season and, although a regular this campaign, he is likely to have more competition now that Stephen Hughes, Isaac Osbourne and Rob Milsom have recovered from injury.

Manager Craig Brown’s future is also uncertain beyond the summer and much could depend on the team’s performances in the coming months as they bid to end a 13-year wait for a major final and avoid a fourth consecutive season in the bottom six of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Rae, 35, pictured below, told RedTV: “I am enjoying my football at the moment. I have pretty much played every game and been involved in every training session. Overall it has been a decent season but I want to make it a really good one.

“The body has held up well and I am not ready to retire yet. I would like to play on for one more season at least.

“Whether it will be here or not we will just have to wait and see but I would love to stay. I have loved my time here and I would love to have one last year at Pittodrie.”

The coming seven days could be crucial for Rae’s long-term hopes as Aberdeen face top-six rivals Hibernian today and St Johnstone on Wednesday before facing the Edinburgh side again in the William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round.

Aberdeen returned from the winter break with a 3-0 defeat at Inverness and Rae is looking to bounce back from their disappointing second half.

“The one good thing about football is that there are always games coming thick and fast and you have the chance to rectify a poor result, which it was on Saturday,” he said.

“Watching the game back I thought we did OK first half but the second half was not good enough. It is important you watch the games back, it is probably more important when you don’t do well because you can discuss and rectify mistakes.

“It was a disappointing result but we are still in a decent enough position and if we can string a few results together we can get back up there. It is a huge week coming up with the two league games and the cup match, which will be massive.

“If we can get some good results it will really set us up nicely for the last part of the season.”