Aberdeen were held to a 0-0 draw at St Johnstone on Saturday, but skipper Graeme Shinnie felt his side should have been taking all three points.

“We wanted to win the game, so we are frustrated that we didn’t. I thought we had reasonable control of the game. They had a couple of moments in the first half, but overall I thought we limited them to not a lot.

“But on the flip side of that, we didn’t create enough in the game and that was the big problem for us. You would expect us to have scored, so you expect to win if you keep a clean sheet. We’ve been scoring more goals but we didn’t do it today which is frustrating.

“The pitch was tough, but it is what it is. You’ve got to deal with that. It was just a mix of everything, not getting into good enough areas, not getting crosses into the box, making the wrong decisions in certain areas. Especially second half, we were in control of the game and trying to push, but we just didn’t have that killer instinct at the end. The bonus is that at least Hibs drew too, so at least they didn’t gain ground on us, but the other side is we didn’t take advantage of then drawing.

“We want to get a run of wins going and see where it takes us. We went on a really bad run, one of the worst in the league, so to still be where we are is testament to what we’d done at the start. It’s very tight, probably the tightest I’ve seen it in my career. Last year Hearts ran away with it in third but this year it’s wide open.

“We’re at a stage where we want to just try and focus on us and control what we can do, take care of our own business. It’s the crunch time of the season and you’ve got to stand up and be counted. Every club will be saying the same thing.”