Watching clips on YouTube may not be a typical way of preparing for a Scottish Premiership game, but it worked a treat for Zak Vyner at the weekend.

The Englishman is usually deployed in defence but due to Aberdeen’s injury and suspension issues when they faced Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday, Vyner was bumped forward to play in midfield.

And after a week of watching ‘Midfielders scoring in the Premier League’, Vyner demonstrated all he had learnt by notching only the second goal of his career to seal Aberdeen’s 3-0 demolition of third-placed Motherwell.

Vyner’s goal was a long-range screamer and it capped off an impressive performance by Derek McInnes’s men, with the victory taking them to within one point of their hosts.

After the match, McInnes spoke of his belief that Vyner could potentially end up as a midfielder permanently and certainly after only a few days’ preparation, the Englishman stepped up to the plate admirably alongside his fellow central stand-in against Motherwell, Greg Leigh.

“He [McInnes] had been saying to me for a while he thinks I’m capable of that [playing in midfield] so when he told me I was being put there, I just grabbed it with two hands,” said the 22-year old, who is on loan from Bristol City. 

“It’s definitely different from playing right-back or centre-half but you just have to adapt. I’m just trying to add another string to my bow.”

Despite being winless in their last three games, Aberdeen dominated the match at Fir Park. And coming off the back of a gutsy 1-1 draw with Hibs the previous week, where Aberdeen finished the game with only nine men, Vyner admitted he is delighted with the attitude his team are displaying at the moment.

“It was a good result against Motherwell – and last week, we showed great character to get back into the game,” he said. 

“And again against Motherwell, I thought we showed real grit, determination and clinical finishing in the final third.”

Aberdeen’s next test will be to host Celtic at Pittodrie on Sunday and while Vyner knows how tough a task it will be to grab any points against Neil Lennon’s side, he is well aware that focusing on their opponents will only serve to be detrimental to his team.

“We just have to look at ourselves,” he said. “We know we’ve got quality in the team even when people are out.

“It’s a big game [against Celtic] but we’re at home so we’ll have the crowd behind us.”

Meanwhile, Motherwell’s players were hugely disappointed to fall to such a heavy loss, and in the process, put a halt to their five-match winning streak. 

But centre-back Declan Gallagher is adamant that his team should not dwell on the defeat, however disappointing they were, and focus fully on remaining ahead of Aberdeen in third spot.

“It was a hard shift and wasn’t the result we were looking for,” said Gallagher. “We are still third in the league so it is not all negative. 

"We are still a point ahead of Aberdeen and have to try and kick on again. There are always ups and downs in football and this was a down.”