McInnes said: "I think from the first roll of the ball we were very bright with our work. We stamped our authority on the game and were everything we weren't against Kilmarnock last week.

"We passed up two or three opportunities to get the opening goal, but everything we've spoken about since last Saturday and worked on this week was playing out in front of me. I was really pleased to see the players get their reward."

McInnes was, however, disappointed with the way his side nearly allowed Ross County back into the game, conceding a penalty immediately after Hedges had struck the third goal.

"The only down side for me was the penalty," he said. "We allowed Ross County into our box straight from the kick-off. We weren't aggressive enough and we switched off, but thankfully we get our second clean sheet in a row."

Ross County co-manager Steven Ferguson saw the positives despite this result adding to the heavy defeat his side suffered at the hands of Livingston last week.

He said: "First and foremost we're disappointed to lose the game, but nobody said this was going to be easy. We've said continually that a club like Ross County playing in the Premiership are going to come up against tests like we have today.

"We have to find a way to deal with it and come out with a better result than we have today.

"Believe it or not I think there were things better today than there were last week. We held a decent shape for a while but we knew coming to Pittodrie we would be under pressure.

"That's what we're going to face this season and we're not going to shirk away from it. There are things we need to do better but we'll take the positives and move on."