Stephen Robinson’s Aberdeen produced a tactical masterclass to put Motherwell to the sword on their own pitch in a 4-0 win, but afterwards insisted that the win was all down to the players.
“The players deserve all the credit, not me, they carried out what we wanted to do, protect the middle of the pitch and push it on the outsides. That's easy to coach but they're the ones that have to do it after the shift they put in on Saturday night as well, for 60 minutes with 10 men and they've done it to the letter, so they deserve every credit, not me.
“Motherwell are a really good team, so to put that level of performance on, score that many goals, not many teams do that here. It was a very good performance, following on from a really gutsy cup win, so it gives a little bit of momentum. We need to continue to do that.
“I know the changes that are going on at this football club and the amount of transition there is, it's not straightforward, it's a huge challenge, so I have to keep the players believing in what they're doing. Winning games gives you belief, and they've managed to do that. You can see them growing into the game and the amount of times that they broke, good passing and lots of penetration as well, we could have had more goals. Before tonight, we haven't had an end product. Tonight we did, so we’re really happy with that.
“I'm delighted for the boys that scored tonight, especially Ayoub getting off the mark after his penalty, and Gavin Malloy which was a surprising one! I thought Gavin was excellent tonight. You need goals from all over the team and we haven't had an end product at times to our game. Tonight we showed when we were disciplined, we got real good quality on the break.
“It continues the momentum from Saturday. It's just a start, certainly I don't get carried away. I don't listen to the outside noise, I see the parameters I have to work under and I see what the players can do behind closed doors. Now they're starting to slowly put that into the pitch.
“We showed a steely side against Kilmarnock and we showed our quality tonight against a very good Motherwell side, let's not underestimate that, they're a very good side. They've had a really good start to the season and yet here we are only a point behind them, so it's amazing how the narrative goes sometimes.
“I won't get carried away, I've been in this game too long to do that, but I've got a belief in the squad. I believe it'll take a little bit of time to get where we want to go to. I know the change, I know what goes on in the background in terms of the amount of players that have left, the amount of players that have come in, and there's going to be bumps in the road but I've got a belief in the group of boys that we've brought in.”
