Aberdeen forward Adam Rooney has been delighted with the way team-mate Scott McKenna has stepped up to the Dons first team.
Defender McKenna, who spent last season on loan at Ayr United, has played the last three games for Dons alongside Icelander Kari Arnason and the new partnership has yet to concede a goal.
Rooney has been hugely impressed by the form of McKenna, who is in talks about signing a contract extension with the club, and has backed his young team-mate, 20, to have a big future in the game.
The Dons attacker said: “Scott has been excellent. He’s a big, strong lad and he will head anything you throw at him – the medicine ball, the lot. He’s a strong boy and he works hard off the pitch.
“He’s always in the gym, he’s very athletic and is quite quick across the ground for a big lad.
“He just does what you want defenders to do – head and clear the ball.
“He doesn’t over-complicate things on the ball and he’s had a couple of good games for the Scotland under-21s with Scotland as well. Hopefully, in the future he can go on and try to push into that squad as well.”
McKenna helped the Dons to a fine 1-0 Premiership victory against Hibs at Easter Road on Saturday.
While the youngster can be delighted with his contribution to the Reds’ success, Hibs head coach Neil Lennon insists his players must quickly rediscover their killer instinct if they are going to cause Celtic problems in this weekend’s Betfred Cup semi-final.
Lennon was pleased with the application shown in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat but was left lamenting the lack of a cutting edge.
The former Hoops manager plans to oversee extra shooting drills in training ahead of the Hampden showdown as the Leith side bid to become the first team to inflict a domestic loss on Brendan Rodgers’ side for the first time in an incredible 60 matches.
Three weeks after a 2-2 draw at Parkhead, Lennon is desperate to go one better on Saturday.
He said: “The play in general against Aberdeen, the pace and tempo, the attitude, the intensity of the game and the quality of the game was good but you need to take that into the game against Celtic.
“It’s a big ask but we’re not going to be too downhearted about it, we just need to be better.
“We didn’t score, we tried to walk the ball in the net.
“It’s got to be better. We’ll be practising attacking drills on the training ground and hope they get confidence from hitting the back of the net.
“John McGinn scored two last time out and Paul Hanlon scored the winner at Ross County so that’s three games that our forward players have not been on the score sheet and it’s not like we’re not attacking and creating chances.”
Hibs are sixth in the Premiership and Lennon insists it is imperative his players improve their home form after collecting just one point from their last three matches in Leith against the Dons, Motherwell and Hamilton.
Lennon, whose side hosts Edinburgh rivals Hearts in their next league match a week today, said: “That’s one point out of nine at home, which we have to rectify quickly. The style of play is good and the attitude and energy is really good. We have to make more out of the opportunities we have and, against the lesser opposition, we need to be winning games.”