Bruce Anderson reckons he and Sam Cosgrove are the men to shoot down Motherwell tonight.

The Dons striker, 21, played in attack alongside leading goalscorer Cosgrove in Saturday’s 1-0 Scottish Cup success against Dumbarton.

Ahead of Aberdeen’s clash with the Steelmen at Pittodrie this evening, Anderson hopes he and Cosgrove – who has bagged 21 goals this term – will get another chance to lead the line together.

Banffer Anderson said: “We always seem to be in the same teams in training and we get on off the pitch as well.

“I think that helps in terms of our understanding.

“It was good to play together on Saturday and hopefully we’ll get more opportunities to play together and build up that understanding.

“I know his game and he knows my game so hopefully we can show that on the pitch.

“With the way we train I believe we can cause teams problems.

“We score a lot of goals together in training so if the manager picks us both then I’m sure we’ll cause them problems.”

Anderson also started the final game of 2019, a 1-1 draw with Hearts at Tynecastle – however, Cosgrove was suspended.

The young attacker has been pleased to be rewarded with two starts after his first goal of the season against Livingston on Boxing Day.

But Anderson was frustrated to pass up a couple of decent opportunities to net against Dumbarton at the weekend.

He says if he gets chances tonight against Motherwell, he’ll take them.

He added: “It’s good to get minutes in the team and I’ve been happy to start in the last two games.

“But between now and the end of the season I’m looking to get as much game time as possible and hopefully I can get more minutes against Motherwell.

“I would’ve liked to score with the opportunities I had. I think not playing in three weeks was partly why I didn’t score.

“But next time I get those opportunities I’ll make sure I do score.

“Getting that game time and getting rid of that rust will benefit me and everyone else for this game and the rest of the season.”

Tonight’s fixture is an important one in the context of Aberdeen’s season.

Motherwell sit a point ahead of the Dons in third in the Premiership table after 21 games.

With the Reds having qualified for the Europa League in each of the last six seasons under manager Derek McInnes, Anderson is keen to show they are still Scotland’s third force.

A win against the Steelmen would be a step towards that.

Anderson said: “It’s always a tough game against Motherwell and they’ll be coming up high on confidence.

“They’ll be hoping to secure third spot and we’re the same. When we’re at our best we know we can compete with anyone.

“So we’ll look to get those three points and move into third.

“It is an important game and going forward we’ll just try to win as many games as we can.

“We know they’re a good side and their manager has got them playing good football.

“But we just need to be at it from the off and hopefully we can get the three points to kick-start us for the rest of the season.

“Since the manager has come in we’ve always been there or thereabouts in second or third.

“This season is no different and we want to be at that level again. We want to get as many wins as possible and secure third as early as possible.

“Every player wants to qualify for Europe and play in Europe so that’s a massive incentive for us. Hopefully we can achieve it.”