“I thought it was a really important win in a difficult game.

“Motherwell are always a challenging opponent and always make it really tough. You know the type of game you’re going to get against them and I thought we stood up to that. There was that one moment of quality and I think James Wilson’s finish is outstanding. It’s a great ball through from McGinn and I’m pleased to see him scoring on his home debut. I’m really pleased we get the three points, keep the clean sheet and it’s a good win to set us up for Tuesday.

“It’s a great feeling seeing a striker in that one on one position and you have so much confidence there’s a goal. We see him in training and he does that on a regular basis. He’s been struggling a bit with injury and we’ve been wanting to get him in the side, but he takes his quality onto the pitch. If he can just get a bit fitter and more game time he’ll be up to speed.

“We’ve not scored too many goals from open play and relied on goals from set plays. It’s a great pass from McGinn and you’re so confident James going to score. It’s a great feeling. He’s a confident boy anyway and a good player. It’s been frustrating not getting him on the pitch and a frustrating time for him and us. We know his qualities, but we just couldn’t get him on the pitch as it’s been niggling injury after niggling injury. It’s important we got 60 minutes into him today and he was tired when he came off. We’ve got a game to prepare for on Tuesday and assess him and all the boys in the morning. It’s important you play in front of the home fans and get off to a good start, which he certainly did today.

“It’s always physical when you play Motherwell and it’s well documented. They play that type of football and rely very much on winning first headers and second balls to try and force mistakes. We did stand up to that and made sure we were resolute in defending. The defence and Joe deserve a lot of praise for that by keeping a clean sheet as they always make it tough. We matched that side of it and got a bit of quality up front which meant we came out deserved winners.

“Joe’s not had a lot to do by his own admission, but when he’s called upon he produced a top save and for me that’s the sign of a top-class goalkeeper because his concentration levels are so good, and he answered when needed.

“I thought Mikey and Scott at the back were dominant and that’s what you need against Motherwell because they ask questions with that long ball. If your centre halves aren’t winning the highest percentages of headers it makes it a difficult game, but they did that. They had Sammon and Bowman up front, but I thought they handled them really well.

“Mikey is a great boy and modest. He’s just got to keep doing his work with Aberdeen and see where that takes him (potential Scotland squad). You can look at other boys in our squad with Shinnie, McLean and Christie previously that if you’re doing the job at your club and up the top end of the league then you will get noticed.

“We’ve got a big week coming up with the Quarter-Final then Celtic at Celtic Park on Saturday. That’s the first one ticked off. We’ll have the boys in tomorrow to recover and as soon as the final whistle went the focus moves to that game on Tuesday night.”