“Saturday was a good win. It was an important three points. All points at this stage of the season are important.

“St Johnstone is always a difficult game. They make it tough, but I felt when the chances came along the boys finished them off really well. I know they are a team who have given us a lot of problems before but this season we had done well against them. We have not allowed them many chances in any of the three games. The not so nice part of the game, winning second balls and winning the midfield battle, we have done that successfully and that is very important against St Johnstone. And in all three games we have taken our chances and scored at good times, just as we did on Saturday.

“I was delighted for Stevie to get his goal. He has been working so hard. He was unfortunate with the ankle injury he got. It bothered him for a while after he came back, it was just not right. Now he is thankfully over his injury. We have seen that he can create chances as well as score them. He is a big player for us.

Aberdeen’s Stevie May celebrates his goal with teammate Gary Mackay-Steven.

“The troubles with the pitch are well documented but it is just something we have to deal with. It is tough to dribble with the ball. You are having to concentrate so hard. When you are trying to cross the ball, it seems to bobble every time. You have to change and adapt your game. I like to get the ball down and run but without making excuses it is not in a state where I can do that easily.

“The next few games are away so it will give our pitch a chance to recover. Fir Park in recent years has been a very good surface so I am looking forward to the game.

“Of course the win on Saturday was good for the confidence, but I would say the confidence has always been there. When we went through a little dip last month, we were not all sitting in the changing room thinking ‘what has gone wrong?’ When are we going to score?’ We know how much quality we have in the squad and we knew it would click again.

“It is sometimes good to battle out a few 1-0 wins, win a few tight games.

“There are a lot of big games coming up and everyone is feeling good about themselves.

“We move on to Tuesday now. It will be a very difficult game.

“Motherwell have a good organisation about them. Their manager has got them playing in a way that every player knows their job and they do it really well. No game is easy against them, especially when they are playing at home. We need to do our homework on Motherwell over the next couple of days and make sure we are at it from the first whistle on Tuesday night.

“At this stage of the season we focus on each game as it comes. The most important game at the moment is the next one.
“No one is thinking about the semi-final. No two games are the same. This is a league game. This is our game in hand that if we win, it will take us back into second spot. It is a massive game, so the cup game is not even in our heads.

“There is a big final push for the season coming up now and a lot of big games.

“I knew before I came here that this club in previous seasons had been in cup finals and fighting at the right end of the table. This season is no different. It is very exciting to be part of it.

“I am loving being here. I can’t wait for these games to come along. The business end to the season is the one we footballers enjoy the most. It is when the honours are handed out and we want to in amongst the think of it.”