Jimmy Thelin was quick to emphasise the importance of the whole Aberdeen squad after they swept aside Queen’s Park to move into the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

“The target was simple today, to go to the next round. The first five minutes we were a little bit unstable and they created some opportunities from crosses before we found the rhythm and get more and more stable and did a good job as a team.

“I’m pleased to see that we had a lot of changes but still played well, you need to be a good squad to be good during a whole season, a season is for a squad not for a starting XI. And the same if you want to be in more cups longer or go to Europe, you have to be a stronger squad to achieve the targets you have for a team.

“The players are working hard to improve. For example, Shayden has made a journey from the beginning of the season to be more complete as a player. He has his skills, his pace, one against one, his crosses. But he also takes more responsibility for the whole result of the game, he helps the defenders and is trying to be stronger in the duels. I think you can see he’s making more and more impact as a player.

“Every player has to deserve their spot and the work they do in training, not everybody can see it, but they do a lot of hard work to deserve to play and make an impact on the team.

“Kevin is more often arriving in the box in the right positions because he is getting fitter and stronger and can cope. He always has a good game understanding, also how he defends and his leadership to help the other players to defend better. The fitter he is then the better he is able to play.

“Oday is also doing a journey, he has to do something more in how we defend and in the pressing, but how he arrives in the box, we are really happy with this. That’s the journey all the players are on, to get results as a team, to win the games. We have more connections in the team and more players can contribute to the way we play and help us to win games.

“It was good to have Dante and Jack back and to give them some game time today. Training is one thing but to play the games is another, so we try to give them some more minutes today and prepare them for the rest of the season.

“We were there in the semi-final last time in the League Cup but it was not a good result. We want to do better next time. It’s nice to have it there in the future to look forward to but now we have to focus on the league first because it’s so tight on the table.”