James Wilson netted on his home debut to give Aberdeen a 1-0 victory over Motherwell.
The goal six minutes into the game was the only highlight of an otherwise poor encounter, with Motherwell offering little in the way of a goal threat.
When he was substituted just after the hour Wilson was given a hearty reception by the 14,000 crowd inside Pittodrie, with his key contribution to the game proving decisive.
Wilson was handed his first start after overcoming hamstring trouble, paired up front with Sam Cosgrove as Derek McInnes looked to test Motherwell with two in attack. Dominic Ball and Mikey Devlin were also in for the Dons, with Max Lowe, Chris Forrester, Stephen Gleeson and Stevie May on the bench.
Wilson wasted little time in making his mark, taking six minutes to open his account from Ball’s through ball with a left-footed effort that went across Trevor Carson into the far corner.
The visitors took their time to settle into the game but were not without their opportunities, as Carl McHugh clipped the angle of post and bar with a curling effort from the edge of the box and ‘Well had a penalty appeal turned down when Andy Considine challenged Elliott Frear.
Joe Lewis was relatively untroubled in the Dons goal but they were not creating too much at the opposite end. Niall McGinn had a couple of chances to pass rather than shoot but passed them up, while Cosgrove looped a header wide from Graeme Shinnie’s cross eight minutes before the break.
The second half offered little in the way of encouragement for either set of supporters, with Gary Mackay-Steven the liveliest player on the park and he had Carson worried after his shot squirmed through the Motherwell goalkeeper and went wide.
Substitute Bruce Anderson missed a glorious chance to double their advantage with 15 minutes to go after Shay Logan played him in, with the Banff-born youngster clipping over the bar.
But they were not punished for passing up that chance, with a great one-handed stop from Lewis in the 90th minute keeping out Chris Cadden to preserve the three points.