MARK REYNOLDS insists Aberdeen’s belief they can finish second this season hasn’t been dented by their defeat to Rangers on Saturday.

The Dons went down 2-1 at Ibrox as they fell five points adrift of Mark Warburton’s side in the Premiership standings.

A late header from Andy Considine proved no more than a consolation for the visitors as goals from Kenny Miller and Lee Hodson condemned them to another defeat in Glasgow.

Derek McInnes’ side play the first of their two games in hand over the Gers when they face Kilmarnock on Tuesday night.

Victory could take them above Hearts in the table and defender Reynolds reckons it will be a three way fight to the finish this term.

He said: “I think it’s tight and it would be disrespectful to Hearts to say it’s just between us and Rangers.

“We can’t say they’ll be nowhere near it - they are on the same number of points or thereabouts and they are putting teams away.

“They are a strong team. They beat Rangers through the week and I think it’s going to be tough.

“It’ll be a fight all season and we’ve been used to that in the last couple of years. Hopefully we’ve got that experience to fall back on.

“We know it will be tough but we know we have a changing room full of boys who can push on and secure second, and push Celtic as hard as we can for as long as we can.

“We have quality right through the squad and that will show over this next month, when we have eight games.

“We have strength in depth and we can change the team up a bit. We’ve got goals in it and on our day we have pace in the team that nobody can live with.

“It’s just about consistency. We showed at Ibrox how well we can do but when you are playing teams at the top level, it’s fine margins.

“It doesn’t matter how well you defend for 90 minutes, the two split seconds on Saturday cost us the game.”