It was a long night in Ayrshire, but the Dons came away from Kilmarnock with a deserved win that puts them in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final. Stephen Robinson was understandably delighted with not just the win, but the character his side showed after playing 70 minutes with ten men.

“First and foremost, you want to win football games. I want possession with a purpose. I want to play behind teams. I want to put loads of balls into the box where you can do the damage, and it's still getting everybody to adjust to that.

“You're getting players from different backgrounds, boys that have played in League One, that perhaps haven't played under this kind of pressure. It's getting them to believe in what we want them to do. We’re doing that.

“I know that I've got the players behind me. I know that the players believe in what we're doing. It takes time. Anybody that thought there was going to be an instant hit here is wrong. It will take two and three windows to get to where we want to go to.

“Tonight, I was so proud of the team. It's easy to give up when you have a player sent off, it's easy to make an excuse. We didn't use any excuses tonight. And you could see the fans getting right behind the team, which was great.

“That's how you're successful at a club, when everyone believes. Sometimes there's hard times, sometimes you need more patience. The fans want something to support, they want something to get behind, and certainly the players gave them that tonight.

“I think the players showed the character that we see in training every day. When I took this job, it was a huge job in terms of the turnaround it was going to be. People say we signed 14 players – well, we needed to, because we lost the same number and more from the squad I inherited. We signed good characters and good players.

“Tonight they showed they are both. They showed that they can take tactical information on board. They've done it with ten men. They passed the ball. They kept the ball. They created chances. They looked like they were full of energy on the break. And they defended brilliantly, tactically speaking.

“Every day, I see that level of application. I see that level of quality. But transferring that on to the pitch is hard because the expectation is high. Some of these players haven't played under this kind of expectation before. It's up to me to support them and keep believing in them. Tonight, they got their rewards, they stood up and were counted. They'll enjoy their trip up the road again.

“Now we want to build on it, starting Tuesday night. Sometimes in a season, you need a catalyst. It was always going to take time. Tonight can be that catalyst. Hopefully we can kick on from here.”