Niall McGinn revealed Scott Brown made an immediate impact on his first day at pre-season training with Aberdeen

The 35-year-old midfielder joined the Dons this summer as player/coach after 14 mostly successful seasons at Celtic.

McGinn played alongside former Scotland and Hoops captain Brown when he was at Parkhead between 2009 and 2012 and the 33-year-old Northern Ireland international is pleased to be in the same changing room again, as the players returned to their Cormack Park training ground on Monday to get ready for next season.

He told RedTV: “I know him from playing with him and having battles along the way.

“Off the pitch he is a bubbly character and has his laughs and jokes at the right time but you’ve seen straight away, in the first session, in the warm-up, he is away sprinting off.

“He is a hard-working boy who will always maintain a high standard in training.

“After the warm-up we went into passing and he was always maintaining a high standard. You need people like that, you need characters like that in the dressing room.

“That can only be a massive positive for us to push us on.

“He is a born winner and you need winners like that in your changing room if you are to succeed.

“So we are delighted to have him here and all the players are delighted to have the chance to work with him.”