“It was an excellent performance, I thought in every area of the team we were stronger than St Mirren. We don’t take that for granted, these players have worked hard for the result today and their motivation and appetite for the game should be commended.

“From start to finish we were very comfortable. Obviously the second goal knocks the stuffing out of St Mirren in their situation and from then on in it became really comfortable, we made a few more chances and got another goal from Mark Reynolds.

“We played the conditions well today, the pitch was dry and the ball wasn’t running across the surface great for us and it didn’t allow us to get a lot of tempo so the pace had to come from the movement ahead of the ball and our choice of pass.

“We tried to be a bit more demanding of them at half time to make more runs forward and get crosses in the box and at the start of the second half Ryan Jack makes a great forward run into space, McGinn follows it up and we get the second goal.

“There was a lot of good play from the players and we are delighted with what they are giving us at the minute, it’s a fantastic run and the response in the last three games shouldn’t be ignored. For me as a manager it’s really pleasing and I think we are getting stronger.

“Adam Rooney’s goal return and performances since he came here just over a year ago have been excellent. If we kept him on the pitch there is every chance he would have got his hat-trick but it was an opportunity to get young Lawrence Shankland in who has scored 22 goals in the U20 League and is itching to play his part as well.

“I reminded Adam that there was probably some older guy keeping him out of the team when he was younger as well! Adam led the line brilliantly today but I don’t think we had a failure today, it was a good performance throughout.

“The game passed without any incident today which was what we wanted, it was all about the performance.

“There has been a lot of talk and mention of the game next week understandably, it would have been easy for us to take our eye off the ball this afternoon but the players were very professional with their performance. Now we can look forward to the game once it comes round.

“We have got good numbers in the squad, Ash Taylor will come back this week and Nicky Low will come back so the squad is getting stronger and the performance levels are good so there is a lot to be pleased about at the moment.

“Celtic’s focus understandably after tomorrow will be on the game in Milan but players that play for Celtic are well used to that and then readjusting on the next challenge so I don’t think that plays any huge advantage for us. I think they have a squad that can cope with the number of games that they have to play.

“In the match against Celtic here at Pittodrie in November we were guilty of a lack of concentration, it was a decent performance and it will take a strong performance from us to get anything from the game on Sunday.

“There is nobody shirking away from that, we have got a good team and I have every confidence that they will know that they are in a game.

“I said in January that I still want us to be in about the top in February and we are now going into March next week still at the top end of the league so at least we are still in the fight and that pleases me.

“The game for us today was important, it’s another game chalked off and the season for us now becomes 12 games. The challenge for us now with 12 games to go is to win as many of them as possible and regardless of who it is we try and go and win next week.

“If we win the game that’s great there is still loads of work to do but if we lose the game there is still an opportunity for us to be successful and keep going. I think these ‘must win games’ or ‘mustn’t lose games normally come after a split at both ends of the table but there is obviously some games that have got a bit more importance than others and I would suggest next week would be one of them but it’s for the same 3 points as it was today.”