“From start to finish it was a great performance.

“The players deserve a lot of credit. I think the appetite for the game and the intensity that we started with was important. Kilmarnock are on a difficult run at the moment so it was important we did not give them any encouragement. We wanted them to see a strong Aberdeen team coming out of the traps.

“And we had that.

“We went two goal up at half time and we could have had a couple more. The performance was very pleasing and we scored four very good goals. The quality of the goals kept improving. That pleased me.

“What also pleased me today was the fact we seen the competitive side of us, the pressing of the ball, the relentless putting them under pressure, and mixing up our game up at the right time.

“But then we also see real moments of quality and the players showed what they are capable of.

“They are playing with that confidence which allows them to be the players that they are. They have worked hard for that and they deserve a lot of credit.

“The supporters also deserve a lot of credit, coming down here in good numbers, the weekend before Christmas. We appreciate their efforts today. “Two years ago we signed Adam Rooney and with any player you sign you hope it works out for you. Adam in my team, with the players we have round about him was always one you were really confident could work for you but he still deserves a lot of credit for what he has done. 50 goals in 90 odd appearances is a great achievement.

“First and foremost with Adam, he gives you a performance.

“His work rate is very good and he is so unselfish with his work. He for example get battered about by the central defenders but he fights his corner for the team. We know that when we get the right service to him as we did today then more often than not he will put the ball away. He has scored a lot of important goals for us, winning goals. A winning goal in a cup final as well with the penalty kick.

“Adam has been excellent and long may it continue.

“I think for ourselves and from the outset of the season, our fight was never with a particular club. Our fight was always with ourselves. And that has certainly been the case in recent weeks. We just have to try and manage our own game and meet our own expectations and see where it takes us. We have shown that we are capable of going on runs as we showed at the start of the season. We have now picked up again and are on another run. We know what we are capable of and when you see today the strong team performance and some really good individual performances, it gives you a lot of optimism that we can improve on last season. I always felt this squad could beat the points tally last season.

“But you know it is never going to be easy. There is always work to be done. Hopefully we can manage our own game, we just look at Inverness at home on Boxing Day and hopefully we can get another positive result.

“Mark Reynolds trained on Monday and Tuesday but missed training on Thursday because he still had a lot of bleeding coming from his broken nose. The injury had not heeled properly so he had to go up to the hospital and get his nose broken again. The upshot of that was he was not allowed to play. So that was disappointing. Then we got the call from the doctor on Friday morning saying Andy Considine had been up all night with a bug. The doctor went to see him and he did not travel. So we were two defenders down, two left sided defenders. Thankfully we had Paul Quinn who could come in and he showed his importance to us.

“That shows the strength of the squad. We have had a lot of youngsters involved recently on the bench and I do feel that they will be called upon but to come down here without three important players, no Robson, Reynolds or Considine and still win was very encouraging.

“I must also mention the three subs. I thought Smith, Pawlett and Goodwillie all gave us something at the right time. That from a managers point of view it is very pleasing, to see that hunger and that level of performance.”