Like the Aberdeen support, Jim Goodwin was very pleased to see his side win so emphatically at Pittodrie today, but headed a word of caution in discussing the 90 minutes with the press.

“We’re delighted with the result and the performance, 65, 70% of the performance I’m really happy with. There are always things we can do better, we let the tempo fall out of the game in the second half, their goal knocked us back a little bit, but we saw that spell out and finished really strongly, so I can’t be too critical.

“I want the fans to go home excited and to enjoy a beer tonight, but we shouldn’t get carried away. We played 10 men for long periods today, so we should win, but we did play some good exciting football too and I was delighted with that.”

New signing Leighton Clarkson inevitably caught the eye with his goal, all the more remarkable given he wasn’t eligible for the game until pretty much the last minute.

“He got a late flight last night up here, his parents drove his car up, we were at Cormack Park until 10 o’clock getting the medical sorted, and it was only about 11 this morning when we got the international clearance for him. I was looking to give him half an hour at the end if possible, so it wasn’t the ideal circumstances for him to come on.

“We’ve tried to bring in good players with the courage to play here. I know how big an impact the fans can have here if things aren’t going especially well. You need strong characters. Being able to play here and excel is good for him if he has ambitions of playing for Liverpool. He’s been with Liverpool’s first team in pre-season, travelling with them to Asia, so it took a while to get the move done. He brings that creativity and competition in the middle of the pitch, which is great.

“Leighton’s was a brilliant goal, he’d tried something similar a bit earlier and it went well wide, so it’s testament to his character that he wasn’t afraid to try it again. But his overall performance was excellent, suits how we want to play. Him and Ramadani in the middle complemented each other, so there’s promise there.

“Miovski scored two more good goals but he’ll admit he is nowhere near as fit as he needs to be yet. There’s 20, 25% still to go, but he’s getting sharper, his movement is excellent, he’ll get opportunities and he’ll score goals – he’ll be disappointed not to be taking the matchball home.

“I don’t think you’ll see a much better goal than the fourth this weekend, playing out of trouble from our corner, a lovely ball from Christian and a good finish.

“The goalscorers always get the credit but there were a lot of good performances. Ramadani was class again, Richardson was very exciting, the new signings have added a freshness to the group and everybody, new players and those here before, have stepped up.

“We’ve got good partnerships around the pitch, we’ve worked very hard on that in training and there are good signs all over the park at present. The players deserve huge credit, they’ve been a pleasure to coach. That’s why the early goal at Celtic was so disappointing because I felt we could get something there and that made it very hard. But the League Cup games and today, people can see what we’re after. It won’t be right every week, there are things to do better, but the direction of travel is good. It was a good day’s work but there’s a long way to go.”

The Dons did pick up a couple of injuries, the only real downside ot a great afternoon.

“Hayden took a nasty one that doesn’t look great, it looks as if there might be some ligament damage there, but there was no malice in the tackle, it’s one of those things that happens. Callum had a tweak of the hamstring, nothing serious there fortunately.

“The squad is a little bit big now, I like to carry probably 22 players including a couple of younger ones, so I would anticipate a couple of players leaving before the window shuts. Some are frustrated at a lack of game time, which is understandable, so we’re having conversations about it. The chairman and board have been very supportive and the recruitment team deserve a lot of credit.”