Aberdeen captain Anthony Stewart believes his side’s 4-1 victory against St Mirren shows the Dons are heading in the right direction.
But the former Wycombe Wanderers defender says there is still a huge amount of work to do for Jim Goodwin’s new-look squad to hit top gear.
The Dons eased to a comfortable win against the Buddies, who were forced to play three-quarters of the game with 10 men following Declan Gallagher’s early red.
A Bojan Miovski double, a stunner from debutant Leighton Clarkson and a cool finish from Luis Lopes helped the Dons cruise to victory.
Stewart said: “There is a lot of quality within the squad and we have gelled quite quickly so hopefully we can showcase that more often.
“We have quality going forward and quality in defence. It is about getting a good balance.
“The win was massive, as if we had lost it would have been an unhappy squad, especially after last week’s result against Celtic (a 2-0 defeat).
“It was good to dust ourselves down and go into this game firing.
“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have just come together as a group, so we are taking it game by game.
“I am new to the league and still figuring out the teams we will come up against every week.
“I think if we keep building every week then there is enough quality in the team to push us as far as we want to go.
“That will be down to our mentality and where we want to take it.”
‘Quiet’ Clarkson was ‘singing along to a few songs’ pre-match
Stewart was impressed by Clarkson’s man-of-the-match display after replacing the injured Hayden Coulson after 12 minutes.
A stunning strike capped a fine display from the on-loan Liverpool midfielder, whose deal was finalised only hours before kick-off.
The Dons captain said: “It was funny, because I didn’t know he had signed until 11.30am on Saturday.
“I haven’t trained with him, but fair play to him for putting on a performance like that.
“I just heard he had played in the Champions League for Liverpool, so he is definitely a prospect for the future.
“Hopefully he can come here and express himself.
“It would be tough to come into a new bunch and express yourself, but he is coming from Liverpool.
“That standard has to be there for him to be at Liverpool.
“I don’t doubt his quality, I just hope he can express it more often than not.
“He was quite quiet in the dressing room before the game, I didn’t hear too much from him, but he was singing along to a few songs.
“Then he came on and put on that display and scored such a good goal.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what else he can do in the coming weeks.”
Stewart, meanwhile, hopes Aberdeen’s resounding victory can be the start of a strong run of form at Pittodrie.
He said: “We get good support and the key with home games is to make your stadium a fortress throughout the season.
“If you want to achieve anything the home ground is got to be where you pick up most points.
“Hopefully we can continue from this game and make that the case this season.
“We have to have the confidence to play our own game, whether the game is going for us or against us.
“That is the way the gaffer wants us to play, so we have to be confident within ourselves to pass the ball through the lines.
“It is vital we give the fans something to go home happy about.
“I’m personally disappointed that we didn’t keep a clean sheet against 10 men.
“These are things we can learn from going forward.”