IT IS a road to self betterment that Aberdeen have taken their first few tentative steps down. Granted, there is a long way to go on a Ladbrokes Premiership highway that stretches out ominously like the A90 in the passenger seat of an Austin Allegro, but the early indicators already point to a fruitful if not eventful journey ahead.

Last season’s crusade took the Pittodrie club up into second place, one spot higher than the previous year. More importantly, they managed to keep up the pace with champions-elect Celtic better than anyone else since Rangers vanished from the Scottish top flight.

It is a measure of the Parkhead club’s superiority and dominance that such a feat was still marked by a 17-point margin that isn’t as much a gap but a chasm in class between the two teams.

John Collins, the Celtic assistant manager, and his now infamous claims that his team does not get tested properly at the back – and the waft of truth that came with it – only serves to emphasise that as much as Aberdeen have emerged as a force over the last 12 months, their stock has not risen far enough for them to be seriously classed as title contenders in the eyes of many.

Indeed, you will be hard pushed to even find anyone within the Pittodrie club proclaiming to be any of the kind, despite manager Derek McInnes' ire at the comments from the Parkhead camp. Look at Saturday for example. Fresh from record a third win in three games with an effective and clinical 2-1 win at Motherwell, the sizeable figure of Ash Taylor, the Aberdeen centre-half who headed home the winner in this contest, strolled quietly into the Fir Park press room to take questions about his team’s aspirations and hopes for the season now stretching out in front of them. The 24-year-old was pragmatic in his responses.

“Taking maximum points is a great way to start from the first three games, but it is only early in the season at this stage,” he said. “It’s about our overall performances and we have to keep them going.

“We did well last season and we just want to improve with each one that we go along. We just want to maintain a level of performance and see if it takes us further. If that means getting more points and closer to Celtic, that’s what’ll happen.

“It’s early to be talking about title challenges, but it’s just about collecting as many points as possible right now. The ambition is to go that bit further and improve season to season.”

Aberdeen are right to focus on themselves given all that McInnes and his team represent these days. This was hardly a vintage performance from last year’s runners-up, but they still showed the wherewithal to circumnavigate a Motherwell side that took a surprise lead after just five minutes.

Kenny McLean is increasingly looking like a key cog in a midfield spewing with industry and intuition and his influence, particularly in the first half, was telling. Even after the concession of such an early goal, Aberdeen did not deviate from their game plan or possession football.

McInnes spoke about a confidence in his team to win no matter what, and Taylor agrees.

“We don’t expect to win games, but with the players we have in our squad, we can cause problems for opponents and there are goals within the set-up,” said the centre-half. “In a way, you always know you are going to score and it’s just up to us to keep clean sheets.

“The team-spirit within the changing room ensures we never know when we are beaten. That is an important thing to have. There are a great bunch of lads with a lot of belief.”

Aberdeen may have been the team that scored the two goals, but Motherwell more than played their part in both of them. It was a game that the Fir Park club posed as many problems to themselves as to their opponents with some more weak defending that clearly irked Ian Baraclough, their manager.

He was particularly critical of the manner in which Aberdeen’s second was conceded, given Taylor outmuscled defender Louis Laing, causing him to obstruct his own keeper Connor Ripley, allowing his Pittodrie counterpart to nod into an empty net.

But the fact Niall McGinn's low cross was allowed to travel through the Motherwell box unchallenged and into the net would have hardly impressed.

The stats so far this season don’t make pleasant reading for the Lanarkshire club. Four games gone with just one win to show for their efforts, which came on the opening game of the season at Inverness.

They were not without their chances on Saturday, though, and over the balance of play probably merited a draw. It is a different problem to last season when they were well beaten on many an occasion, but one that is equally as troublesome to take.

“When you play against Aberdeen, you know it is always going to be tough. But we were unlucky, even though you can’t keep saying that,” said Lionel Ainsworth, the Motherwell winger. “We had spells with waves of attack and our end product and final ball should have been better.

“I’m confident in the defenders, just as they are confident in the forwards. We just have to tighten up a little more. As a winger, though, I go home thinking it is my fault. I always feel I could have done more. As a team, we were unfortunate.

“I don’t think we are far away. Winning at Inverness was good and we lost at home to Dundee United. Hearts were better than us and we competed with a team here who were second in the table last season. They are strong, but we outplayed them in the game and gave away silly goals. There are plenty of positives.”