Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes unhappy with penalty awarded to Hamilton
Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was left thankful his side did not pay the price for what he felt was a poor penalty decision awarded to Hamilton during their 2-1 Premiership victory.
The Dons went ahead through an Ash Taylor header but their lead disappeared within three minutes as Dougie Imrie netted the contentious spot-kick after Joe Lewis was adjudged to have fouled Danny Redmond.
Adam Rooney scored midway though the second half, moments after Lewis had made a superb one-handed save from Ali Crawford to keep the scores level, as Aberdeen kept the pressure on second-placed Rangers.
McInnes said: It's never a penalty. That's the second time against Hamilton this season we've been so aggrieved by the penalty decision against us. It's a save. Joe's touched the ball twice, with his left (hand) and his body. It's a bad decision.
We reminded the players not to hide behind the fact it was a poor decision. We've got to try and do our jobs well. It needed composure and confidence, and the players were excellent from that point of view.
We needed the second goal, but I felt we were a bit wasteful at times. We rushed things a few times after getting into good areas. At 2-1 you're never totally happy, but nobody could deny we deserved to win that.''
Hamilton boss Martin Canning admits his side need to start winning games quickly after defeat left them with just one win from their last 16 games.
Canning, who saw Scott McMann sent off in added time, said: Games change on goals. I think first half, there were a lot of set-pieces and balls going into the box and we got done with one - the free-kick.
Aberdeen put a lot of pressure on us, which you expect coming to Pittodrie, but we got the penalty to level the scores, and when Ali went through we thought we could be sitting here having won 2-1. Instead we got beat 2-1.
It's frustrating because it's been a hard spell of games we've come through and we've lost by the odd goal on three occasions. The games have all been close, but we've taken nothing from them.
We've drawn a lot of games, but we know we need to win more games. Saturday (against Motherwell) now becomes a massive game. We need to win it, it's as simple as that. You can't keep saying you've had a hard run and it's not been that bad - we've got to start winning. That's the bottom line.''