Fewer than 10,000 souls watched this one in the flesh. Such is the malaise around Aberdeen at the moment.

Peter Leven’s team were beaten in the Scottish Premiership dress rehearsal of this one on Sunday, but they rarely looked in danger of their Scottish Cup defence coming unstuck after Priestman’s early exit.

Motherwell were pulled from here to there and put under pressure until the numbers were level, but even then home goalkeeper Per Kristian Bratveit was relatively untroubled.

Cameron was instrumental in the first half. Leven will be looking for a similar impact in the games to come in their ambitious top-six push and a cup defence.

For Motherwell, the big question will be why so many changes?

While Stephen Welsh was cup tied, big names of this season’s Fir Park juggernaut were benched. Calum Ward, Elliot Watt, Callum Slattery, Ibrahim Said and Emmanuel Longelo.

One of the players brought in, Gordon, got sent off, while the first red card – and therefore the opener – came from a stray Matty Connelly pass which put them under pressure. To be fair to the goalkeeper, he helped keep his team in it more than once.

There is still so much to play for this season for Motherwell. European football being the biggest thing.

But given this is arguably the best Motherwell team in living memory, another shot at silverware, and something tangible to show for their efforts, has slipped away.