Mark McGhee believes Aberdeen will benefit from the return of key players and is confident results will improve.

"We've stalled and not really got our season started and there were signs today of what's to come," said the manager after the 1-0 loss to Hearts.

"It was a disappointing goal to lose, otherwise I was satisfied. I was delighted to have the players who have been out injured back.

"I think that is going to make all the difference. I remain very optimistic."

The Dons have taken just one point from a possible 18 in the Scottish Premier League since winning their first two matches.

However, McGhee was upbeat after seeing Paul Hartley, Andrius Velicka and Sone Aluko starting the match after periods out with injury problems.

"Thankfully nobody has really got ahead of us," added McGhee. "I'm talking about teams outside the Old Firm.

"There's plenty of the season to come. We have a couple of home games now and I think we can carry some of the momentum from today forward and we can turn those games into victories.

"I'm really excited about the group of players we now have fit -and we've still got Nikola Vujadinovic and Peter Pawlett to come back by Christmas, maybe."

Velicka was playing his first match since August 2009, having recovered from a serious cruciate ligament injury.

The Lithuanian striker, on loan from Rangers, lasted 57 minutes and McGhee is hoping he can regain his match sharpness in the coming weeks.

"He looked like a player who needs games but in training you can see what he's about and we know he can add something a lot better than we've had," the manager explained.

"He needs time and we need to be patient with him but I feel he will be a big asset to us this season."

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