“I am very pleased we won the game.

“I thought in the second half we got into a bit of a lull so something had to change. I thought we had plenty of penalty box entries but we never really carried that threat that we did in the first half.

“Sometimes it takes something different.

“It is always hard taking off a goalscorer like Adam Rooney when you are needing a goal but we have got other players here now because we have been too reliant on Adam for almost three seasons now. I thought all three substitutes helped us win the game.

“We found our killer instinct.

“That is the one thing that we have been lacking. There has been some decent play in some of the games but we have not been winning. I have told the players the way we feel after this game is the way we should feel at the end of a weekend. We have not enjoyed our recent weekends even although some of our play has been good. Football is all about winning and the players needed reminded about that. We needed to get more of an end product from our good play.

“I thought some of our play in the first half was outstanding.

“We carried a constant threat and I thought there were a lot of top performers today. We had to respond to going a goal behind. It was completely against the run of play and we were annoyed by that. James Maddison then got us back on track and I thought he was excellent all game. But he was in good company. McLean and Shinnie in the middle of the park were outstanding and Hayes and McGinn were a constant threat.

“We are only six games into the season and we have only lost one game domestically. There has not been a lot wrong. There has been a lot right about the team. But the difference between winning games and drawing games is massive. The standard the players have set over the past few seasons means that a draw does feel like a defeat. That is the way it should be at a club that wants to win things and wants to be competitive.

“I was delighted for Jayden.

“He is desperate to make an impression but it is difficult to find a place in our team because there has not been a lot wrong with it in recent seasons. We have brought in Jayden, Wes, Anthony, Miles – it is a tough ask to get in the team. So it is important when they do come in that they contribute as they did today.

“Jayden is confident. As soon as he goes on he is looking to score. Wes is the same. They can come on in a game and hit the ground running. They both looked eager to play today. It is important your substitutes do that. They have to be strong mentally.

“We wanted Jonny to stretch out and you saw the threat in the first half. Cammy Kerr had his hands full and he did well to fight his corner. We then decided to play James a bit narrower that side (the left) and let Jonny stretch out on the other side the right). I remember last time we were here Jonny put over a great ball for Adam to score from the right. He can go both sides so he is difficult to deal with.

“James should be pleased with his performance. He is a real technician of a football. He has great balance, can play on his right foot, his left foot and picks up some good areas. All the top players have the ability to find space. He is going to help us. We have a team littered with pace but a bit of craft and thought can make the difference in games.

“We said at the end of last week we wanted to get six points and get ourselves into the semi-final of the cup. People say you should not look at the table until the first round of games but you can’t help it and it did not look good. It looks a bit better now and hopefully we can start to put back to back wins together in the league. We are a team that have shown in recent seasons that we can put winning runs together and I don’t see why this year should be any different. It is easy for people to panic when a few results don’t go your way but I have every confidence in the team. We have mirrored our start to two seasons ago when we went onto to break a point record of a team outside Celtic and Rangers so we know what we are capable of.

“We now have that winning feeling and we want to keep it going.”

“We now have that winning feeling and we want to keep it going.”