Amid dreadful weather conditions at Pittodrie, Derek McInnes was delighted that his side came through to collect all three points against St. Johnstone.

“It was job done in the end.

“They were terrible conditions for both sets of players, I’ve played in dozens of games like that over the years where there’s no real enjoyment in the game for the players, so you get that at the end of the 90 minutes if you’ve got the result.

“I think it’s unfair to criticise any of the players about the play when the weather is as wild as that, the pitch is dry and bobbly – you can see how hard the surface was with their goal, the ball bouncing up over Joe like that.

“All you can do is be pragmatic, get your basics right, and for their first goal we didn’t do that, we gave a needless throw and a needless free-kick and gave them chance to put the ball in the box.

“We got level with the penalty – I can understand Callum Davidson being frustrated because it was soft, but we should have been given it 10 seconds earlier for the handball which was exactly the kind we’ve been victim of this season.

“We asked the players at half-time to be more pragmatic, these weren’t the conditions to overplay in.

“We switched Jonny and Matty so we could go inside and out and we got some of that early in the half which created the second goal.

“I’m pleased Ash will get recognition for scoring the winner but anyone who has watched us knows he’s been playing really well.

“He doesn’t get a fair crack sometimes but he’s been outstanding in recent weeks especially. He was a giant for us today, standing up and taking responsibility.

“From there, up until the last seconds with the cross from Stevie May, we were pretty comfortable and the better team.

“I think we deserved out points but it was tough with the weather. You have days like that up here and we came through it, with good desire and drive.

“We’re halfway through the season, 38 points, we’re on track to qualify for Europe again but there’s still a lot to do.

“I hear a lot about how strong the squad is, the strongest in my time, but we’re getting really stretched with injuries and suspensions at the minute, four young boys on the bench today, but we dug out the result.

“We’re asking a lot of the players this month with so many games, with Christmas and all, but they’ve been really professional and done a great job for us.”