After 90 minutes of tireless effort from the Dons at Fir Park, Derek McInnes was left with mixed feelings about the 0-0 draw his side take back up the road to Aberdeen.

“I thought the intent of the team to get about Motherwell was good right from the outset. We started well and the motivation was clearly there to go away from home and try and impose ourselves. McLennan and Hedges had good speed about them, found good space and we created a number of opportunities, Main being the obvious one that hit the bar. That opening period was very good but then Motherwell tightened things up a wee bit and got a bit more possession. In saying that, as the away side, I felt we were pretty comfortable for the 90 minutes to be honest.

“I can’t criticise the players in their application, their attitude, how they set about the task, that was all excellent, but we just needed to be a bit better in and around their penalty box, and we couldn’t do that tonight. As good as we were from set plays in the first half, with the deliveries on point, second half it wasn’t there. That’s disappointing because we had a real height advantage second half which we didn’t use at all. Too often we hit the first man from corners, we weren’t getting the deliveries in to use that size, so that was frustrating.

“But all the boys put a real shift in, there was real honesty about the team, box to box we were decent, I thought we worked the ball into good areas, but we didn’t really make the most of it. I thought Main linked play well, Cosgrove was bright when he came on, but what we were looking for, especially in the second half, was more quality from the wide areas.

“When you’ve got Hayes, Hedges, Kennedy, McLennan, players who look to get forward and create things, you need a solid base and I thought the back three and the two boys in midfield were terrific in allowing those boys to go and get forward and try to create things. Defensively I felt we were very good. They countered on us a couple of times, but we got back into good positions, made some important blocks and again, Joe Lewis hasn’t really had a save to make. The third clean sheet in a row is pleasing.

“There was a lot of hard work, eagerness to try and impact the game from the attacking players, but it was one of those nights where, second half in particular, the quality wasn’t there, they know that themselves. In the end, that’s why we didn’t get all three points, but we move on to St Johnstone and hopefully the boys will improve on that. If they continue to work as hard as they did tonight and show the same application as they did tonight, it’ll come right.”

The manager also reflected on a gruelling spell for the Dons since the last international break, a run which has barely seen the team run out at Pittodrie.

“I think you have to face the fact that six games out of seven away from home is asking a lot of the players. There’s been a lot of travelling, it impacts on the work you want to do in training, it has made life a wee bit tougher than it could have been. We’re glad to be at home again on Saturday, and hopefully we’ll get the benefit of that.

“Overall, it’s not the worst result in the world, getting a point at Motherwell, and it becomes a good point if we go and win our home game on Boxing Day. Away from home we’ve been very consistent, we’ve only lost at Ibrox in the league this year, we win a lot of games, we keep picking up points and if you do that and win your home games, you’re not too far away from where you want to be.

“Saying that, we know a home game with St Johnstone will be tough. I’ve seen a fair bit of them, they’re very hard to break down, they’re compact and dogged within their shape. Callum Davidson has got them well drilled, the know their jobs, they’ve got players who can score goals and will look to play on the counter, but we should be confident from our last few results.

“I signed him as a player and was happy to help him take his early steps into the coaching side of the game. He was always eager and thirsty to learn, made the most of what he had as a player and he’ll do the same as a manager. You can see his team are well coached, they’ve changed the shape from how they were under Tommy Wright but you can see they know what they’re doing. It’ll be a difficult game but if we can find that bit of quality that was missing on the final ball tonight, we give ourselves a good chance.”