He said: "It's been difficult for a few years now. We seem to have spent the last two or three years battling against relegation. "

He added: "But Ebbe has come in and showed faith in his young players and those young players have played very well. What we need to do now is take these players and build for the future.

"The teams below us lost today so that takes some pressure off us and now we need to think about getting up the table.

"Nobody talks about fighting relegation when they start at the beginning of the season and I'm sure that won't be a problem in the coming years."

Certainly youngsters like Darren Mackie and Kevin McNaughton played their part in the Dons' rather fortunate victory, but the game itself was far from a classic.

Apart from glimpses of skill from Dons midfielder Rachid Belabed there was little quality on show and the match, played in driving rain, was punctuated throughout by an endless stream of free-kicks.

The game looked to be heading for a goalless draw, which would have been the fair result, until Young scored from close range after a late counter-attack from the visitors exposed Motherwell's defensive frailties.

It was not one of Young's more classy finishes but the midfielder was unconcerned.

"I don't care how the ball goes in, even if it goes in off my backside, it's still a goal. I was a bit disappointed not to have started the game but was delighted to get the goal, this gives us three points and we go up the road happy.

"It was a battling performance, we knew Motherwell were a strong, physical team and it was going to be a very hard game.

"But we battled right to the end and we managed to get a break just before the finish. There's no doubt about it, luck plays a big part in football and maybe we got some today.

"The players believe there is a genuine chance to get into the top six but we need to keep winning from now on."