Stewart scored with little left in the tank

Greg Stewart admitted he had little energy left when he struck the goal that sent Aberdeen on their way to the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

The former Dundee star, on loan to the Dons from Birmingham, netted the opener 72 minutes into the second leg against Siroki Brijeg in the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina to turn the tie in Aberdeen’s favour.

Stewart slotted home Ryan Christie’s reverse pass with his weaker right foot before Christie picked out Gary Mackay-Steven six minutes later to seal a 2-0 win and 3-1 aggregate victory which set up a contest with Apollon Limassol of Cyprus.

Stewart had been substituted by the time the second goal went in and boss Derek McInnes knew he would not last 90 minutes on his first start.

The 27-year-old told Red TV: “The gaffer said to me after about 60 minutes: ‘How (are) you feeling?’

“I said: ‘I think I’ve got abut five minutes left in me’.

“So I definitely need to get fitter myself, but I can only do that by continuing to work hard in training and playing games like that.

“I don’t score many with the right so I’m definitely happy with that one.

“It’s always nice to get off the mark early when you go to a new club.

“It was great by Ryan Christie, you can see in training how much of a talent he is, he finds passes nobody else sees.

“He’s got a great future ahead of him.”

Aberdeen had come alive around the hour mark as they found a second wind.

“We always felt we could get the win, and we showed that,” Stewart said. “I felt we deserved it. “We didn’t really get the ball moving in the first half, fair play to them they stopped us. But I felt we created chances in the second half and could have scored before we actually did.”