On Friday morning Max spoke with the media to look forward to the match with Hibernian.

“At such a young age it was a mad couple of weeks for me getting told I’m going back to Derby, packing my bags going home seeing my family then two weeks after being told I’m coming back. It was a really quick turnaround. The gaffer’s bantered me, the lads have bantered me about how they’ve had a little trip to Dubai, where they’ve worked hard but also got some sun, and here’s me playing against some top opposition against Leeds and then Southampton in the FA Cup, which were really good experiences and it was nice to put a Derby shirt back on. I’m delighted to be back. I need to progress in the way I was going in the first half of the season.

“Aberdeen feels like home. I’ve only been here six months but there’s a real family feeling about the club, the gaffers been fantastic with me and the lads have been second to none. They made me feel at home within the first two weeks, the lads were taking me out for food after my first day of being here. I’ve met some friends for life so I can’t fault anyone at the club, I feel that has helped me progress as a footballer on the pitch as I’m comfortable with the people around me off the pitch it only works that way on the pitch as well.

“We want to go a step further in the cup. Aberdeen is a massive club we want to be playing in cup finals, and hopefully winning them. If we go that step further, it will benefit everyone at the club. In the league we want to take it game by game and see where it takes us. We know it’s a tight league, it’s the tightest league I’ve played in and its great for the fans to be watching, but we want to go that step further and be at the top of the tree.

“Scott (Wright) is a great lad. In the game at Stenhousemuir he did really well. it was a nice game for me because I could just give him the ball and let him fly past players, he has great talent about him, he is great on the ball and this loan spell at Dundee will do him the world of good. Scotty getting a run of games would be fantastic for him at his age, and he’ll come back ready for pre-season ready to kick in the season.

“That probably was one of my hardest games going to Hibs, I remember the quarter-final very well. We struggled but we got the result which was the most important thing. We know tomorrow is going to be a hard game, but we aren’t taking it by any means easy we are going to have to go there and be at our best. We’ve still got Mikey Devlin missing so that will be a big miss and obviously Scott McKenna is coming back from his hamstring injury, but we’ve got a really strong squad so hopefully we can get the three points there and move onto the next one quickly.

“I wasn’t watching sky sports until midnight, but I was on my phone until midnight. You never know about football, its mad. You can’t really predict the future. Within the last couple of hours there was a couple surprising ins and outs all around the world. I was just hoping we kept hold of Scott McKenna and I’m really happy we have. He makes my job a lot easier playing alongside him, he’s a great player for the club and he is going to go a long way in the future. We will have to wait and see what happens further on.

“In my eyes he’s the best left back that’s ever played (Ashley Cole). I learnt my game as a left back from him so I can’t really fault the gaffer’s option of bringing him in at Derby. He’s a left back of great experience and he’ll do fantastic for Derby. The things he’s done on his CV is second to none and I think Frank Lampard has made the right decision with that. I hope Derby go all the way this year as they have the squad and the fans deserve it.

“There’s a bit of uncertainty at Hibs, but they’ve come off the back of a win at St Mirren, so they are going to be eager and ready to go. Because of the position we’re in we’re doing really well, and we want to keep pushing up the table, and their going to know that. Hopefully it works in the best way for us and we get the three points, but we’re not going to expect it to be an easy task.

“The fans have been fantastic. Every away game I’ve played in they’ve always turned up in numbers. It’s a massive motivation for us players going onto the pitch and seeing them there on cold nights, like it was the other night in the cup. It was a fantastic turnout and it gets us going. The numbers are massive, and it shows how big a club this is.”