Dons boss McInnes salutes Mackay-Steven after tough start to life at Pitoddrie
Aberdeen manager, Derek McInnes, was delighted to see Gary Mackay-Steven kick-start his Pittodrie career with a winner at Easter Road.
Mackay-Steven slotted home the only goal against Hibernian after a first-time pass from Kenny McLean in the 38th minute.
The winger has not had the smoothest of transitions following his summer move from Celtic - he was rescued from Glasgow's River Kelvin seven weeks ago after a drunken escapade went awry, and his previous appearance only lasted 37 minutes before he was hauled off in a Betfred Cup defeat by Motherwell.
But his training-ground vibrancy persuaded McInnes to start him in Edinburgh and the 27-year-old responded in style.
McInnes said: I'm really pleased for Gary on a personal level. He was playing because of how he trained this week. He has had one or two niggles and the international break came at a good time for him. I wanted a ball-carrier and more pace in the team for this game, and someone to carry that threat in wide areas.
It's been a bit stop-start for him. When we signed players in the summer we were picking up pieces, for a lot of the boys who had not played for a couple of years had got regimented into training-players and not really been important.
Gary is one of them, Stevie May another, Greg Stewart. But they are worth persevering with. It pleases me that we have still been winning games and getting these boys up and running.
Gary played with a freshness, an enthusiasm and energy. He was a constant threat from minute one. Yes, he tired, but he will feel better about himself coming off and playing a winning part for us.''
The Dons were forced back for the final quarter, but McInnes threw on more defenders and his team held on to stay level on points with Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Celtic.
Hibernian head coach Neil Lennon bemoaned his side's lack of cutting edge. Vykintas Slivka hit the outside of a post midway through the first half, but visiting goalkeeper Joe Lewis was relatively untroubled throughout.
In front of goal we were poor, our final ball was poor,'' Lennon said.That's the only disappointing aspect. I need more from my attacking players.
John (McGinn) got two at Celtic Park, Paul Hanlon scores at Ross County, so for three games now none of my forward players, either wide men or strikers, have been on the score sheet.
We are creating plenty of chances. I'm not big on stats, but we seemingly had 16 attempts at goal and only three on target.
The one genuine piece of quality was Kenny McLean's pass to Mackay-Steven and the finish, but we attacked at will second half. We had to be better in front of goal for the amount of domination we had.''