Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin praised the atmosphere at Pittodrie as the crowd helped drive his side to come from behind to beat Hearts 3-2 and maintain their 100% start to the season.

“We get a really great start to the game today, a really nice goal, and then Hearts tested us a little bit. We have these things that don’t go exactly as we planned, and the team still stays together, they don’t get too stressed. We did some mistakes today, that’s football, football is a game of mistakes, you have to reduce them but still be brave. But today is not the right day to analyse the mistakes. Sometimes you have to enjoy these victories when you push so hard. You must celebrate with the fans and enjoy the evening.

“Tonight we have to think about the atmosphere, the substitutions we did and how they make an impact inside the game, how the whole place was bouncing, and the character of the team. They still find ways to win, and have this hunger to try to find the winning goal. We can see the fire in the eyes of the players and how they push each other and really compete, together with the fans because I think everybody can feel the atmosphere today. It was something amazing, actually.”

Ahead of setting off to join up with Scotland for the first time, Nicky Devlin showed his worth at the top end of the pitch with a fine equaliser that set up the grandstand finish for the Dons.

“Nicky’s was a really nice goal and it was a good finish, it was a bit similar to the situation against Ross County away, and so he has a good week, and everybody inside the squad is so happy for him.”

Duk was back on the pitch for the Dons too, and the manager was pleased with his impressive second half contribution.

“Duk added some really strong qualities in one-against-one, running in behind and creating problems, like the yellow cards and the red card, and also Ante’s goal. He has the team spirit, he trains so well, and today he showed everybody else what we’ve seen on the training pitch.

“For the goal, Ante arrived into the box with this hunger, not just watching the game, he took responsibility to arrive in the second wave inside the box, and it was a great finish.

“We have a good squad and everybody’s connected and everybody tries to help the team and give everything they have. Depending on if you play the full game or some parts of the game, everybody’s there connected, so it’s nice to see that spirit.”