Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass knows there are no grey areas when Hibernian visit Pittodrie on Wednesday night.
With two Premiership fixtures remaining, the fourth-placed Dons are three points behind the Scottish Cup finalists and with an inferior goal difference of nine.
The men from the Granite City finish the season with a trip to face champions Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday while Hibs – who will play St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup final on May 22 – host Celtic at Easter Road.
Glass knows that realistically, only a victory over Jack Ross’ side will do if they are to have a chance of leapfrogging the Edinburgh outfit to finish third in the table.
He said: “We know what we need to do tomorrow night.
“A point is not good enough to give us a chance, we need to win the game ahead of the weekend.
“So we go into the game tomorrow night well prepared, knowing what we need to do, knowing the challenge Hibs pose but believing we have the players and the plan to go and get the three points.”
Glass took over as boss from Derek McInnes in March and is making plans for next season with Celtic skipper Scott Brown arriving as player/assistant and Scotland defender Declan Gallagher moving up from Motherwell.
However, his focus is firmly on Hibs and finishing the season as high up the table as possible.
The former Aberdeen and Hibs winger said: “We are looking forward to next season already but the biggest thing is this game on Wednesday night.
“We want to go into Saturday with third place still a strong possibility.
“That’s what we want to set up. Then we will start dealing with next year once this season is out of the way.
“But what I would say is the response of the players since we came in has been unbelievable.
“Their work rate is top level, we are hoping to embrace that next year, push them a little bit further, give them a little bit more quality and hopefully see a better team on the pitch.
“But the most important thing is the game tomorrow night.”
