Sivert Heltne Nilsen hopes Aberdeen cup win signals step in right direction

Sivert Heltne Nilsen hopes Aberdeen’s 3-0 Scottish Cup win over Dunfermline signalled a step in the right direction for the refurbished Dons.

Before the visit of the Championship outfit in the fifth round on Saturday, Jimmy Thelin’s side had won only one game in 15 in all competitions, against Elgin City in the previous round.

However, there was no shock outcome at Pittodrie as Pape Habib Gueye headed the home side in front on the stroke of half-time before second-half goals from Alexander Jensen and Kevin Nisbet booked a place in the quarter-finals.

Thelin brought in a bunch of new recruits during the winter transfer window including Kristers Tobers, Jeppe Okkels, Alfie Dorrington, Jensen, Mats Knoester and Oday Dabbagh and all bar the latter – who was waiting on paperwork – played a part in the much-needed victory.

Heltne Nilsen, the 33-year-old Norwegian midfielder who signed for the Dons from Brann in the summer, told REDTV how happy he was with the victory.

He said: “It was a long time since we last won here.

“And it was more to get a good performance, everybody on the same page, be aggressive, try to press high as much as possible and be dangerous with a lot of players in the box.

“We saw some of the images that we wanted to see and we had a quite good feeling in the game.

“When we win, it’s a nice feeling. So let’s see.

“There were some good things we can bring along. So we will look at it much later next week. So let’s see what we can get out of it.

“And it’s very important to get a good feeling when we have so many new players in a lot of positions.

“It’s a new way of playing almost, when you have new players in, that you have to learn their skills and how they want to play and how you can put them in their best situation.

“So this is something we need to learn as quick as possible and also working for the future.”