Jimmy Thelin extolled the virtues of competition amongst his squad after it was the substitutes who grabbed the glory once again in Aberdeen’s 1-0 win over Dundee United, Peter Ambrose scoring the goal.

“I have seen Peter in training the last week, he has been so good. We have a great competition inside the squad, but it’s good for him to get these minutes today and make a winning goal. Everybody is so happy for him right now.

“We believe in our strengths and just try to be calm, every player has different characteristics and different qualities, so we try to use someone else like Shayden who maybe likes more to play one against one, and from there finally create something from that. That’s what is a team, it’s a strong team spirit, you see how they celebrate, how everybody is fighting for each other, and the supporters.

“It shows how strong the squad is, and also how they respect each other, how they compete in the training sessions, how they prepare themselves, how they stay focused, even if you don’t play so much, you go into the game and contribute and do some important things on the pitch, so it’s more about the characters they have and how hard they work for the Aberdeen Football Club. We try to use the squad in a good way, we also know that the game is 90-plus minutes and we need sometimes other qualities at the end of the game also.

“Football, you never know if changes will work, but we have to believe in something, so we try, and sometimes we need someone stepping forward like Shayden did with his crosses, and Peter with the quality on scoring, so that’s football. We try to create more chances, I think in the first half we don’t create so many, I think we have one shot on goal or something like that, so it’s more about that, give us a chance to win the game, and when the chance was there we take it.

“I think in the first half we were struggling more, we played more direct, but also because they defend really well. They are a really strong team with a good coach, but at half-time we talk about being more patient in our build-up and try to stretch them a little bit better and finally we find some moments and we get a kind of momentum, some crosses more inside the box, and finally we score through one of the crosses. We had more players inside the box and that’s good to see the players stay calm and don’t stress.

“The fans, the energy is coming from them when we try and try and try and no one gives up, everybody keeps believing and we try to push for a winning goal. Everybody has run a lot, but they just keep running and behave like a really strong team. From day one they have been so supportive and pushing the team and we try to grow with them. I think it’s important in the long term to be everyone together to build a strong Aberdeen for the future and the long-term.

“We enjoy today and then tomorrow we start to focus on the next game. We try to work as usual, how we prepare ourselves, Rangers is a really strong team, they are good, we know we need to stay focused on the right things, we need to prepare ourselves, but today I hope the players just relax and enjoy this win.”