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DEREK McINNES has told Rangers that Aberdeen will still be Celtic's main competitors for the Premiership title next season.

McInnes' men have taken the title race to the closing stages of the season and are on course to break their record points tally of 75 points.

The Dons boss insists his players deserve more credit for the fight they put up this season and is unhappy at talk Rangers will automatically replace his side at the top end of the Premiership next season after their Championship win.

Shay Logan made similar comments last week that riled Mark Warburton , but McInnes agrees with his defender.

He told the Evening Express: “Next season the focus will go on to Rangers and Celtic and little Aberdeen will be pushed aside.

“All the experts will tell you that Rangers need to spend millions to give themselves a chance to compete with Celtic.

“That may well be the case but Rangers’ budget is still three times my budget currently.

“Yet it seems as if there has been criticism of my team when we don’t sustain a challenge. There is no logic in that.

(Image: SNS Group)

“While I don’t think we deserve excessive praise, I don’t think my team deserve criticism either. My players always give everything.

“I think at times they have actually really over performed this season.

“It’s sometimes too easy to slap the team down for not being able to make a better challenge to Celtic.

“But we are the only team who have given them a challenge of some sort. We will be aiming to do that again next season, too.”