Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna absolved team-mate Sam Cosgrove of any blame after the striker missed his chance to be the Dons match-winner at Rangers on Saturday.
The Ibrox meeting ended in stalemate with Cosgrove’s wasted chance when one-on-one with Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor leaving the Dons with having to settle for one point instead of three.
McKenna said: “We didn’t give away too many opportunities and we had the best chance of the game through Cozzy. Had he taken it we could have won the game but big Sam has bailed us out so many times this season so we can’t hold it against him.
“We’ve been looking at set plays a lot. The amount of corners and free kicks we get which we don’t direct on target is clear. We’ve been wasteful and we’re trying to address that so we don’t rely on Sam all the time.”
Aberdeen’s hard-earned point was just reward for their efforts against Steven Gerrard’s side and McKenna hopes the point earned at Ibrox shows the players and manager Derek McInnes are united in their attempt to push the club back up to third.
The Dons boss was criticised by some fans following the 0-0 draw with St Mirren a week ago and Scotland international McKenna believes it is unfair.
He said: “What the manager has done at the club in the last seven years has been tremendous and I don’t think people should forget that too quickly.
“Any time we have come here and had a bit of success every single one of us has stood up to their players and that’s what we did again.
“We’ve been solid enough back to middle and maybe not creating the number of chances we should in the final third but a point is a good result for us.
“If they don’t get their own way you can hear the fans getting on their backs and music to our ears. That’s when we try to force them into making more mistakes and that’s what happened in this game. They didn’t have the quality with that final pass.”
Aberdeen boss McInnes narrowly failed to bring in a new attacker on deadline day on Friday but has not ruled out a move for a free agent.
However McKenna believes fans should be pleased with the new recruits who have arrived.
He said: “Dylan McGeouch is a creative midfielder and you saw his quality at Hibs a couple of seasons ago. It didn’t work out down south but he looks to come and take the ball and get us moving up the park.
“Matty Kennedy is a great ball carrier and can drive us up the pitch. He will hopefully give us that spark we need.
“We’ve only seen clips of Ronald but judging by the caps he has got we should be excited by him.”