Jamie McGarth, on return from his time away with the Republic of Ireland, spoke to the media on Thursday to preview the Dons cinch Premiership fixture against Dundee on Saturday night.
“To start the other night for my country, play 90 minutes and get the three points was brilliant. That was a bonus for what I am doing here and hopefully I can keep that going, stay injury-free and stay in the team. If I get international recognition off the back of that, happy days, but first and foremost it’s what’s going on here.
“I think coming here has been big for that. Playing for a big club like Aberdeen will hopefully get me recognised in the national team set-up.
“To be fair to the gaffer he has shown a lot of faith in me from when I first signed by playing me early doors, especially when I didn’t have a proper pre-season under my belt. I am delighted to have got a few goals lately and if I can stay injury-free, I hope I can help the boys as much as I can.
“It is a very good squad here and there is a lot of talented players, especially in midfield. You have to give your all every time.
“The whole group was back in today.
“A lot of boys were away. I am lucky enough I wasn’t too far away but for others like Duk they had a bit of travelling to do. But everybody is back now, and we are looking forward to Saturday.
“It’s not ideal with the conditions outside at the minute but hopefully it will settle for the weekend.
“We still got a good session done today and we are getting ready to go for it on Saturday and to get going again in the league.
“That was the second international break since the season has started so we are a bit more familiar with how to get back into things.
“We are five games unbeaten now so we have to try and keep that going for as long as we can.
“It is going to be a tough game on Saturday and will likely be played in different conditions with the evening kick-off, so we will have to get used to that.
“There are some big big games coming up in the next month, so we want to try and get three points on Saturday to kick-start that run.
“It was obviously very disappointing to go into the international break without the win that we were looking for against St Johnstone, especially after winning three of the last four before that.
“St Johnstone put in a good shift that day and we are going to have to be on our game on Saturday. We have watched a bit of Dundee now and are familiarising ourselves with how we can hurt them but also how they can hurt us.
“It’s going to be a tough game but at home you want to be getting three points at every opportunity, no matter who it is that is coming up here. It’s not going to be easy but hopefully we can get a win to kick-start this busy period.”
