Aberdeen defender Mark Reynolds concedes his team cannot squander any more chances after missing the chance to close the gap on leaders Celtic.
The Dons were held 1-1 by St Johnstone at Pittodrie on Saturday and the draw keeps Aberdeen six points behind the Hoops, who also drew at Hamilton on Friday.
With the games counting down Reynolds knows there is little margin for error for his team and said: “With Celtic losing points on Friday we had the chance to close the gap, but we didn’t capitalised on the opportunity which was disappointing.
“We’ve always felt Celtic could drop points, but with 11 games remaining those chances will be few and far between and that’s why it was disappointing we didn’t take our chance.
“We’ve always taken it one game at a time and tried to get as close as we can.
“Things will happen. We don’t need Celtic to lose, we just need a couple of draws to keep them close enough until we play them again – that is going to be a massive game.
“It would be easy to look at the games and think about what is possible, but that’s when slips happen. We just have to look to the next game and that is Wednesday at Dundee United.”
There was disappointment at the manner in which the Dons let the lead slip with Liam Craig’s penalty two minutes from time earning St Johnstone a share of the spoils after Simon Church’s goal for Aberdeen.
The Dons were aggrieved at the penalty decision with captain Ryan Jack adamant he got the ball when tackling Liam Craig.
Reynolds said: “From where I was it looked like Ryan made contact with the ball. We’ve watched it back and the ball is running out of play, but you live by the sword and die by the sword and we have to move on from this game.”
The disappointment for the Dons was compounded by the news leading goalscorer Adam Rooney will miss the next six weeks with a thigh injury. Reynolds admits Rooney’s absence is a blow but insists the Dons can cope.
He said: “We’ll miss Adam but we have players here who can step up.
“We carry a small squad and we do feel it when we lose players to injury, but we believe we have enough depth to see us over the line.
“Simon is like Adam in that he comes alive in the six-yard box. He has started well and Adam’s injury has given him the chance to step up and shine and he has shown he is capable of scoring.”