DONS 0 ACCIES 0 We’ve got zero confidence
McCrorie says Dons’ fight is with themselves as yet another blank harms hopes of bagging third
Ross McCrorie on Aberdeen’s goal drought
ROSS McCRORIE accepts he and all of Aberdeen’s goal-shy stars need to stop shooting themselves in the foot if they want to blast past Hibs in the battle for third.
The Dons have just a single win and goal to show for their last nine outings.
Their horror run continued with this stalemate at home to Hamilton – even though it moved them a point closer to the Easter Road side, who are still three ahead with a game in hand.
Midfielder McCrorie, 22, said: “It was another frustrating day. When teams like Hamilton come up, we should be taking three points and had numerous opportunities to do it.
“It’s plain and simple – we’re not scoring goals and we need to if we are to start picking up points.
“There are too many occasions when we have clear-cut chances and are not taking them.
“It’s everyone in the team who needs to take responsibility for it and start chipping in with goals.
“It’s another clean sheet and the performance was there – but I want to be taking three points. If we had a bad performance and took the three points, I’d take that all day long. But we need to start picking up points.”
Derek McInnes’ Dons did create more opportunities than in recent weeks.
Florian Kamberi had a great chance but a heavy touch allowed Aaron Martin to block before Brian Easton headed Niall McGinn’s effort off the line. Callum Hendry, who got that solitary finish and victory against Kilmarnock last month, fired over from close range, had another shot charged down and then put one wide with the goal at his mercy.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic as Joe Lewis made a great save to deny Ross Callachan a third goal in five games, while Hamilton could have had a penalty when Scott Martin’s shot hit the arm of Andrew Considine.
McCrorie admits his side must be more ruthless as they look to go one better than back-to-back fourthplaced finishes.
He said: “Our fight is with ourselves. We need to start scoring goals and picking up three points more often.
“We’ve drawn far too many times this season and it’s not good enough.
“We’re still up there. We had a lot of good work at the start of the season. We’re in a sticky spell at the minute in terms of goals but we’ll get out of it.
“The goals need to start to come as you don’t win games if you are not scoring.
“It’s frustrating just now because we’ve had far too many draws and there have been too many times when we’ve created clear-cut chances but not taken them.
“As a collective, we need to start scoring more goals.”
The problem is, it will take an almighty turnaround in Aberdeen’s fortunes with just
six games left. The reality is, on this form, the Dons look incapable of putting the string of results required together.
Their form is more like that of a relegation-threatened outfit than one pushing for a Europa League place.
The frustrating thing for the Dons is they have now kept an impressive 18 clean sheets, only to let themselves down at the other end where they cannot buy a goal.
Hibs are in the driving seat, despite slipping up at St Johnstone and looking far from convincing themselves.
Aberdeen’s issue is there for all to see.
No one has made it into double figures for goals, the closest being midfielder Lewis Ferguson on nine but whose last finish was in
October. McInnes, who is heading for the lowest points tally in his six full seasons at Pittodrie, cleared out his strikeforce in the last transfer window to bring in Hendry, Kamberi and Fraser Hornby all on loan.
They have only got one goal between them, albeit Hornby has been injured for the past fortnight.
Hendry will have come away from this game knowing he could have had a hat-trick.
McInnes needs people to stand up if they want to get third or salvage their season in the Scottish Cup.
The fact the cup is going to be played is a hammer blow – unless it’s won – because it means the winners now get precedence when it comes to the Europa League, while fourth and fifth will need to make do with the Europa Conference League. Aberdeen are likely to finish at least fourth but that would be a disappointment for everyone at Pittodrie. As for Accies, they look on course to seal another season in the top tier after climbing off bottom. Brian Rice has done a remarkable job, one conducted with attacking football rather than survival. They just need to turn draws into wins.