Boss Derek McInnes was pleased Aberdeen grabbed a late goal to see off League One Dumbarton, but called for his side to take more responsibility in front of goal.
Sam Cosgrove’s 86th-minute penalty was the difference between the sides, but the Dons peppered the visitors’ goal with 27 shots over the 90 minutes, and McInnes felt they should have been more ruthless.
He said: “I’m bemoaning and cursing the fact we passed up so many chances. At set plays, every one of of my bigger lads had opportunities – Cosgrove, (Andrew) Considine, (Scott) McKenna, (Ashton) Taylor.
“They’ve got to be better than that. It’s a part of the game that’s very important and these boys have to take the responsibility to score more goals when the delivery is as good as it was from Niall McGinn today.
“If you take your chances then Dumbarton have to come out of their shape to get something from the game, but the longer it’s 0-0 the more they think they’re in the game.
“Nobody could deny that we deserved to win the game. It felt like the type of performance that maybe merited more goals, but you have to score them, and we’re still searching for penetration and quality. It’s something we need to work on going forward.”
Dumbarton boss Jim Duffy saw plenty of positives to take from the game, adding: “It’s a bit heartbreaking because you get so close to getting the replay. We know we were under the cosh, particularly in the second half. McKenna was bombing forward, so they almost had three players on the left!
“We defended the penalty box well and our goalkeeper didn’t have too many saves to make, but Aberdeen have so many options.
“From my point of view all we could do was defended properly and be organised – and we were.”
