The Light Blues are back in Scottish Premiership action after booking their place at Hampden Stadium for the League Cup semi-finals in midweek as they look to continue their momentum since the international break.
Speaking to the media in this afternoon’s press conference the manager said: "We are in the middle of a big schedule; we are focused on the next game. It is pleasing what has gone on before in terms of the four results and the clean sheets. It was nice to score a couple of late goals, the game was very similar to the previous game against Livingston where they tried to make it hard for us for long periods.
“When they opened up in the second half and chased the game both in the league and the cup game, the bigger space gave us an area to punish them, so I was pleased with it. I was pleased for Ryan Jack scoring late in the game as well, all round what the game proved the other day was when Livingston sat in they can make it difficult for you. When they come a bit higher Abdallah's speed was always going to be a problem for us, it is good that we have got the variety like that.”
The manager has highlighted the solid defensive displays from his team of late having kept four clean sheets in a row and he believes good teams are always built around a solid base.
He continued: “A good team is always built off a solid foundation defensively. I think in Europe for the last while we have not always been strong defensively so it was so good to get the clean sheet against Betis who are a dangerous team. Domestically we have had clean sheets and we have only conceded the odd ones here and there, which even those goals we would probably look back on with disappointment about the way they went in, so far so good.
“I think we are having the least shots on our goal; our goalie is doing well but at this moment in time he is facing the least shots, which means the team in front of him is also doing well.
“During the international break it was an area that we wanted to look at. Obviously we had just conceded goals in big games that were partly our doing, so as a whole group there was a focus on our out of possession, our pressing, our shape and our distances.
“There has been a lot of focus on the team's rhythm in possession, but a lot of that we had to allow those relationships and we still are to form, but defensively we feel we could pull ourselves together as a team, so I have been pleased with it. Ben [Davies] coming back in has been part of that, the reason he hadn't played prior was he ended last season with an injury.
“He come back to pre-season with a separate one, he has only been available for these games, he has been knocking the games out. I have been pleased with him but it has been a team effort as well, not just him it has been a full team effort.
The boss believes his team will be facing a tricky opposition when they welcome Barry Robson’s side to Ibrox tomorrow and he feels his team will have to be wary of the problems they could cause from the Dons’ forward line.
He added: “They are a team that is built around their front two, that are good players for sure. They have come off an important week for them, I thought they performed very well in Europe in a defeat, but in terms of the performance it will give them a lot of encouragement.
“They have beat Ross County twice this week, they come into it the same as us but their front two have caused us problems in the past as well from last season, the games have always been close. We know there is a little bit of edge in the air between the fans which is healthy as well.”