“Up until the last 15 minutes where naturally the intensity wasn’t there as a few boys started to feel the demands of the games we have been playing, we were outstanding and I can’t praise them enough for that. We asked them before the game not to put one game over the other in terms of importance, Thursday was important to us but this game couldn’t be ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ and we were looking for a big effort to get the job done.

“We had raiding full back’s with Shinnie crossing for Logan time and time again, we had great movement ahead of the play and in the middle of the park we dominated. It was a real dominant performance in the first half, the first goal took a wee bit longer to come than we would have hoped but when it did come it was worth waiting for as it was a great finish from Graeme. He has not scored too many in his career but we are hoping he scores a few more for us in an Aberdeen shirt.

“We asked the players to pick it up in the second half with more attacking roles and WIllo Flood attacked the space brilliantly for the penalty and when Rooney is standing over a penalty you have always got confidence that he is going to tuck it away.

“At 2-0 I thought the job was done and we absolutely dominated the game and I am delighted that the players found the will to get the job done.

“We took the decision to request the Hamilton game be called off when we were still in Europe but I still think it was worth requesting because it helps us win this one today psychologically, as we were able to send the players out knowing that if they win they would get a couple of days off and physically it will help us against Motherwell on Saturday.

“The players have earned a couple of days off, it has been a bit of a whirlwind being back in since the middle of June and we have not had a chance to take a breath really, it has been one demand after another. We are not totally satisfied with the start to the season because we wanted to go that bit further in Europe but in terms of the league the application and focus has been spot on.

“Peter Pawlett twisted his ankle in training yesterday, we are hopeful that it is nothing too serious but we are hopeful that he will be back by the end of the week in training.”

“Peter Pawlett twisted his ankle in training yesterday, we are hopeful that it is nothing too serious but we are hopeful that he will be back by the end of the week in training.”