Two-goal Steven MacLean salutes St Johnstone's emphatic victory at Aberdeen

MacLean netted two goals after the interval, adding to first-half strikes from Brian Easton, fellow former Aberdeen man Joe Shaughnessy and midfielder Liam Craig. The Dons' solitary response came from the head of Ash Taylor.

MacLean certainly enjoyed scoring against his former club, celebrating in front of the fans at both sides of the pitch, and he said: "The Aberdeen fans gave me a little bit of stick, but I like that. It makes you want to play better. At the end of the game they actually clapped us off the pitch. It just shows they appreciated our performance.

"I had a tooth out on Thursday and I've done nothing but take painkillers since then. I've still got a bit of an infection in my mouth, so when I was given a chance for my hat-trick my finish wasn't great. I was too knackered to get there!

"I think I need to go to the dentist every week!"

MacLean hopes his side can continue their fine goalscoring form - already they have scored more than half the number of league goals as they managed in the entirety of last season.

"We were more than delighted to score five goals here," he continued.

"I don't know when it was last done, and it shows how well we're attacking now. That's 21 goals so far this season and we only got 34 (all last season).

"We've got to look to keep doing the right things in front of goal, but at this minute in time we're clinical. I don't know what our chances-to-goals ratio is, but it feels like it would be pretty good."

Aberdeen midfielder Barry Robson is keen he and his team-mates put the result behind them and move on for the next Ladbrokes Premiership match against Ross County in a fortnight - and vowed the mistakes that led to this defeat will not be repeated.

"It's not a result we anticipated happening, or that we're used to," Robson said.

"Sometimes in football this comes up and we've got to deal with. We work on a lot of set-pieces but we didn't defend or attack them well enough today.

"I'd want to play a game tomorrow to make this right. We can't do that so we'll go and make sure we make things right for the next game. Three weeks ago we beat Celtic here and played some unbelievable football.

"We don't get carried away in the dressing room, so we'll get together and make sure this doesn't happen again."

The Dons will remain top of the pile in the Ladbrokes Premiership over the international break, and Robson is keen to look at the plus points.

"For me, I look at it from a very positive angle," he added.

"I think we're in a great position with a great squad of players, and we're even more looking forward to the next game after what happened today.

"There's work to do, but we can't get away from the fact that 24 points from 30 so far this season is a good return."