Jimmy Thelin and his Aberdeen side completed a perfect ten from the start of the season with victory over Motherwell, but the Aberdeen boss admitted that it was a hard fought win in the end.

“The first half I think was really good, how we were structured in the game. In the second half they were better, they are a good team, but we stick together and make the sacrifices for each other, that’s why we win the three points today. I think today everybody can celebrate, the fans and supporters, but we need to focus on the right things and it’s a long season, we know that.

“We always think game by game, we don’t think about what’s happened before or what is ahead of us. We try to stay humble, we need to do the right things, focus on the right things. You have to respect every opponent, everybody has their strengths and weaknesses and we try to be ourselves, but also respect them. We need to do our thing. There’s a lot of good coaches, good staff, squads, teams, so you can never relax, you have to be sharp in every game.”

Pape Gueye grabbed the headlines with two more goals to take his tally to five, the Senegalese striker clearly benefiting from his loan spell in Norway ahead of this season.

“He arrived at the end of June I think. He was fit because he played in Norway and was ready to go. He deserves to play because he did good performances. It’s important for the attacking players to make assists and score goals. But as well as this, he does his share in defensive transition, the duels in set-plays, he presses and keeps going until he can’t run anymore.

“The first goal was really high class, pure quality. He’s far away from the goal, he ran a long way and then he stayed cool in the end when he tried to score. It was an amazing goal, but the win is about the whole team. I like how we pick up second balls, how we put pressure on, defend on set plays. I like the sharing of responsibility and that everybody is connected in different parts of the game.

“I know the team spirit is good because we meet each other every day at Cormack Park and when we train, but sometimes in the games when they get momentum like Motherwell created in the end, you have to make this extra run even if you’re really, really tired. That’s the connection between the players and the supporters right now, because they push us. We have to keep doing that.

“We’re trying to achieve something strong here, at home the identity should be clear, and we need this energy because we want to play with intensity. When the opposition push us, you see the team is growing. Sometimes in the second half today we struggled a bit, Motherwell did really well, but we were strong to get these extra points.”