It was a gruelling game in Paisley, but Dons boss Barry Robson was proud of his players’ efforts as they salvaged a point from a tough afternoon.

“First and foremost, credit to St Mirren, they were excellent, take nothing away from them. We looked a yard off it all over the pitch. But that happens in football and on those days, when you feel you can’t win it, then do all you can not to lose it. They did that today, they fought, they hung in, and the spirit got them the draw.

“You could see a good team in St Mirren who were fresh and you saw our team that had to fight to stick with them. We’ll get better at it as the season goes on, as we get more players up to speed – we’re doing that, dealing with the league and with Europe all at the same time, which isn’t easy. Angus MacDonald got his first start today, James McGarry and Jamie McGrath got another half an hour on the pitch, which will do them good. I thought Richard Jensen did well in his first game for us, he looks a good athlete.

“It’s a learning curve for the players, going from a European game, going from such a high off a great performance, going from the emotion of that and trying to then perform again on the Sunday. You look across Scotland, Hearts have been struggling, Hibs have been struggling, Michael Beale’s been talking about the demands of playing in Europe, I’ve done it as a player at Celtic. It’s tough, but we want to be in Europe, we want to do well in Europe and in the league, and I’ve got to look to try to get the balance right across the games.

“The cohesion wasn’t there today, right from the start. We tried to change things up to improve things, but it didn’t happen. But in the circumstances, credit to them for coming away with a point from a team that’s going really well at the minute.

“You have to remember, we’ve been on the road a lot as well. We’ve played once at Pittodrie since we played St Mirren at home last May, and that was against Celtic, but even away from home, we can count on the fans to help us when we need them, and we needed them today.”