Derek McInnes can’t fault the effort of his Aberdeen players – but admits it was disappointing to see a lack of quality needed to grab a win.
The Dons drew 0-0 with Motherwell at Fir Park in a game of few chances. Curtis Main hit the bar early on and Jordan Archer made a good stop from an Aberdeen free-kick, but that was that in front of goal.
It was a game of few opportunities and McInnes said they lacked that final bit of quality: “I thought the intent of the team to get about Motherwell was good right from the outset.
“We started well and the motivation was clearly there to go away from home and try and impose ourselves. McLennan and Hedges had good speed about them, found good space and we created a number of opportunities, Main being the obvious one that hit the bar.
“That opening period was very good but then Motherwell tightened things up a wee bit and got a bit more possession. In saying that, as the away side, I felt we were pretty comfortable for the 90 minutes to be honest.
“I can’t criticise the players in their application, their attitude, how they set about the task, that was all excellent, but we just needed to be a bit better in and around their penalty box, and we couldn’t do that. As good as we were from set plays in the first half, with the deliveries on point, second half it wasn’t there.
“That’s disappointing because we had a real height advantage second half which we didn’t use at all. Too often we hit the first man from corners, we weren’t getting the deliveries in to use that size, so that was frustrating.
“But all the boys put a real shift in, there was real honesty about the team, box to box we were decent, I thought we worked the ball into good areas, but we didn’t really make the most of it. I thought Main linked play well, Cosgrove was bright when he came on, but what we were looking for, especially in the second half, was more quality from the wide areas.”
Having played six of their last seven away from Pittodrie, McInnes is looking forward to a Boxing Day clash at home to St Johnstone: “I think you have to face the fact that six games out of seven away from home is asking a lot of the players.
“There’s been a lot of travelling, it impacts on the work you want to do in training, it has made life a wee bit tougher than it could have been. We’re glad to be at home again on Saturday, and hopefully we’ll get the benefit of that.
“Overall, it’s not the worst result in the world, getting a point at Motherwell, and it becomes a good point if we go and win our home game on Boxing Day.
“Away from home we’ve been very consistent, we’ve only lost at Ibrox in the league this year, we win a lot of games, we keep picking up points and if you do that and win your home games, you’re not too far away from where you want to be.”