U18s Lead Coach Scott Anderson spoke after the young Dons victory over Kilmarnock on Friday.

“I am really pleased.

“It’s not the way you want to start the game. We actually take the kick-off and create a great chance, but suddenly there’s a ball down the other end and we are down to ten men.

“We took a minute or two to settle down, get our structure organised and once we did, we were really pleased with the first 45 minutes. I thought we actually created four or five good opportunities.

“We also had a good defensive structure behind us, so I’m pleased with that.

“To come out for the second half and get an early goal and then two quick goals on top of that, I’m really pleased with pretty much the whole game. We managed the game well, got a clean sheet and also scored a really good fourth goal right at the end as well.

“The group have showed they’ve got a real bit of resilience about them, a wee bit of grit alongside their technical ability. We also think they are in a really good place physically as well so it’s a really positive performance and hopefully we can build on that.

“We never properly performed down at Kilmarnock in the league so we wanted to produce a performance. This is an important tournament for the club, and we managed to get the performance to take us into the next round.

“I said to the boys that when we perform to that level, they will always give themselves an opportunity. We’ll have a good few games before that match, but they’ve done really well today in terms of being up against it straight away, so as I say I am really pleased.

“It is another good learning experience for them, going down to ten men so early on in a cup tie, learning how to deal with that, and they certainly passed that test today.

“It’s a strong group, I said at the start of the season I believe we will have really positive days and days that we will need to learn from.

“Today they’ve shown a lot of grit, as well as showing the technical and physical ability that they’ve got.

“I’ve been really pleased with the season as a whole. We know one or two might go out on loan in the second half of the season, and the group might break up a bit, but we will keep working hard, trying to blend the younger ones into the squad and bringing players through, and just keep going.”