Jim Goodwin was happy to see his Aberdeen top their Premier Sports Cup Group with maximum points, but was realistic enough to point ot plenty of work that still needs doing ahead of the league season which starts next weekend.

“I’m delighted with the final result and another clean sheet but there were lots of things we could do better in the game as well. We were very sloppy in the opening 20 minutes in possession, cheap turnovers, poor transitions and I explained to the guys at half-time that if they do that next weekend at Parkhead, we’ll find ourselves two or three goals down.

“It was too easy for Raith early on, we were sloppy, we felt it was going to be too easy. We got to grips with that and were better from there. At half-time we spoke about getting at them in wide areas because they had congested the middle of the pitch, it was very tight in there so we needed to get overloads out wide and from there we were better in the second half.

“We could have had more goals, there were bits of our play that were really good. We produced some entertaining football that seemed to get the fans on board and buying into what we’re trying to do. Christian had a very good header where the boy makes a terrific save in goal, when he was in on goal, I’d have liked him to roll it to his left to let Duk get off the mark with a tap in, but I won’t criticise the big man for that, he’s a striker!

“All in all, I have to be very satisfied. It’s early days for the group, we’re still not done in the recruitment market, but there are signs we can be optimistic. There are elements of our game that we need to get better at, but that’s natural. It’s a relatively new group, we’ve spent much of pre-season talking about our attacking play and only really in the last week have we begun to look at the defensive shape. We’ll be working much harder on that next week in preparation for going to Celtic.

“But really, I don’t think we could ask for a better start to the competitive games than what we’ve had. Clean sheets were a real problem last season but so far, we’ve looked solid. Stewart and Scales have struck up a decent partnership, Roos hasn’t been tested much yet but he’s brought reassurance and confidence to the back line, Ramadani reads the game so well in front of them. I don’t think anyone will outmuscle us, we’ve got leaders in the group, we’ve got good quality in the attacking areas so we can go and hurt teams, and we’ve got pace, which is the most important thing.

“The new guys have gelled a lot quicker than I imagined and the application of the group has been terrific. Three Premier League clubs have gone out of this competition in the groups, but we have sailed through in the end and that’s big credit to the players.

“Now we got to Annan Athletic in the next round and that means the expectation is all on us to go through again. I’ve a lot of respect for Pete Murphy, I know him well, they’ll have no pressure, but we won’t underestimate them. It’s on astroturf, that can be very tricky, so we will have to be as professional in that game as we have been in these four games.”

The Dons showcased a new number 9 today in Bojan Miovski, after some shuffling of the squad numbers.

“Miovski is the number 9, but it’s just a number, it doesn’t really bother me at the end of the day what number they have, people can read too much into that. When we were negotiating with Bojan to bring him here, he wanted that shirt. Christian is very understanding of that situation, and he’s got two number 9s now, so he’s happy!

“It’s good Bojan got his goal, you want your forwards to get up and running early, and he despatched it brilliantly. He’s only had two training sessions, he was tried at half-time, but we just wanted to try and get an extra 10 or 15 minutes in his legs. He’s behind the group because of the delay getting him here, but he will get sharper.”

Goal of the day came from Ross McCrorie, a screamer from 25 yards to take him up to three goals for the campaign already, to the delight of his manager.

I think McCrorie is a really underrated footballer. People think he’s a bit of a dog in the middle of the park but he’s far better than that and far better than he believes himself to be honest. Every week, I want him to have that self belief that he showed in scoring a special goal today. We’re asking him to get forward a bit more, buy a ticket a bit more of ten like he did today, so I was very pleased he got his goal again today.”

There was also a word of praise for Mason Hancock, making his fourth straight start for the Dons.

“Mason had a poor 20 minutes up at Peterhead and it would have been easy to take him out after that, but I wanted to give him a chance to show people he can play and he’s gone and done that in the games. He’s very good offensively, very comfortable on the ball, good boy, well mannered, respectful, not afraid to dig in and do the hard jobs. He’s one we have high hopes for but at the same time, we still need cover because Jack MacKenzie is finding it hard to stay fit at the minute.

“In terms of bringing players in, that means we need a bit of left-back cover and I’d like another attacking player. To add to that, when Connor Barron is out of the team, we are a bit short in creativity from midfield, so I hope to have a bit of news on an attacking midfielder coming in over the next day or so. Bringing in the quality we have doesn’t come easily, a lot goes on behind the scenes, the board and the chairman have to produce the finance, so it’s a big team effort to make it all happen. We’re not done yet.”