In the opening stages of this game, a ball broke to Stuart Armstrong in the Kilmarnock box. Given their tendency to concede early this season, a goal seemed inevitable.
But Armstrong chose to pass instead of pulling the trigger. Panic over, and from then on, Kilmarnock gave as good as they got.
There was a change of shape, back to the 4-2-3-1 that McCann used to good effect last season. It gave them much-needed width, taking pressure off the midfield and full-backs and shoring them up at the back.
As a result, Aberdeen only had two shots on target and, of the two goalkeepers, it was Marius Muller who was by far the busier.
On the left, Erik Ring proved a real threat, while Greg Kiltie lead well in the number 10, often driving forward by himself or popping up in the right position.
There was few penalty shouts for Aberdeen, a Tom Lowery handball and a challenge on Ayoub Mouloua, but both went unpunished and were far from stonewallers.
But those are the little breaks that McCann admitted his team needed, and they earned them today. The only frustration was they couldn’t turn a good away performance into a win.