Aberdeen defender Ash Taylor believes the Reds can take plenty of heart from their Europa League campaign despite bowing out of the competition to Kairat Almaty last night.
The Dons were looking to overturn a 2-1 first leg defeat in Kazakhstan but fell further behind when Gerard Gohou gave the visitors the lead after 59 minutes in front of a sold-out Pittodrie last night.
Kenny McLean pulled a goal back to delight the 20,317 supporters but the Dons were unable to get the second goal that would have forced the tie into extra time.
Taylor felt his side should have been in the hat for today’s Europa League play-off draw but reckons they can be proud of their efforts.
He said: “We will be able to take positives from the performances in Europe. We played really well in the competition but it is a shame that we couldn’t get that little bit further.
“The Kairat goal did change the gameplan. I thought the boys worked really hard and we just needed that first goal but we didn’t manage to get it.
“We never give up and we have a great bunch of lads in the team with a never-say-die attitude.
“We pushed right until the end but it wasn’t to be.
“I thought we were a better team than Kairat but we were just lacking a little bit of quality.
“We weren’t clinical enough in front of goal, whereas they were. It hurts because we thought we were better than them.
“To go out of the competition after a performance like that is disappointing.”
Kairat frustrated the hosts and the Aberdeen faithful with no shortage of time-wasting once they took the lead.
But a philosophical Taylor added: “If the boot was on the other foot I am sure we would have probably done the same.
“We wanted to get the game going as quick as possible, so it was very frustrating that they were doing that.
“I was trying to get one of their players off the pitch towards the end as there was nothing wrong with him.
“He was just trying to waste time, so I tried to drag him off the pitch to get the game going. It all kicked off after I tried to do that. But we have to put this behind us and focus now on Kilmarnock this Sunday.”