Controversy over the Accies equaliser turned what looked three points or the Dons into a disappointing evening for Derek McInnes.
“My first thought for their goal was that it must have been offside because we held our line.
“So for their boy to get a free header so close to our goal, we must have allowed him to go into an offside position. Ash is adamant that both of their players were ahead of him when the ball was struck. He looks half a yard off from the angle I’ve seen but it isn’t conclusive. I definitely don’t think it was a free-kick against Tommie in the first place, it’s the softest one you’ve ever seen. It’s a good ball in from McMann, but to lose a goal from their first attempt is disappointing because it flew in the face of the game.
“First half, we had total dominance, complete control of the game, I really enjoyed watching my team, though we could have had more goals. A lot of boys who haven’t had the chance to play much football this season came in and gave me a good performance. But goals do change games and that one gave Hamilton oxygen, it gave them confidence and encouragement.
“They competed very well and battled very hard for their point after that, the game wasn’t as free flowing and in control as I wanted in the second half, but we still had good moments. Fulton made a good save from Matty but to balance that off, Joe has made a terrific save in the last minute to get us our point. It’s positive to get a point away from home and to go third but we came here to win, I felt we did enough to do that and we’re disappointed it didn’t happen.
“We tried to freshen it up by bringing on Niall and Ryan to keep the energy and the press at the top end of the pitch but the game petered out a bit, a lot of fouls, it was getting broken up and we couldn’t find that moment we needed in order to win it. It’s not the worst result, but we’ve gone to Hamilton and put on a performance that wins the game in the past. I felt that would be the case again at half-time but we didn’t see the job through.”
Goalscorer Ryan Hedges caught the eye once again on a night where the manager was pleased with a number of performaces from his players.
“Ryan has been very consistent for us this season, scoring goals, carrying a threat. It’s great to see him in the middle of the goal like he was to score, but generally I felt he carried the fight for us tonight. Losing the speed out of the team with Wright, Hayes, McLennan, Watkins, then Hedges is one who can still give us that at the top end of the pitch.
“We’re just trying to navigate the situation with so many players missing. We wanted to come here and win and for long stretches we were good enough to do that, but it wasn’t to be. Now we’ve got to turn to a cup game against St. Mirren that we need to try and get through on Saturday, and then hopefully we start to see players coming back. Jonny should be back for the league game after that one, Lewis and Connor should hopefully be back too. Scott Wright is seeing a specialist in Manchester tomorrow just to get a second opinion on the scan that he had because he hasn’t been responding to treatment so far. Hopefully we’ll be clearer on things off the back of that.
“But for Saturday, we’re patching these boys up again and that’s tough because its three games in six days for a lot of players who haven’t played a lot of football. It’s asking a lot of them to play through those games at the intensity required after time out. But they’re giving it everything, I thought there were some right good performances out there.
“Campbell and Ojo were very good in the middle of the park – Dean had only had eight or nine days training before Ibrox so it was too early for him to start there, especially with half the team already not having had a lot of minutes. The plan was for him to start this game and he responded well. Cosgrove is working his way back to full fitness which is key because he’s such an important player for us, Kennedy the same. He and Main had some good moments, so a few boys there have made progress this last week. Hopefully they’ll be better for it.”
