Ross McCrorie knows Aberdeen’s paucity in front of goal is not good enough but believes only a collective effort can improve his club’s fortunes.
The Dons reduced Hibernian’s lead in the race for third place to three points but there was no hiding the disappointment at not eating further into the Hibees’ advantage after being held to a goalless draw by Hamilton Accies at Pittodrie on Saturday.
The frustration among the players was evident as they created several great chances but failed to take any and McCrorie knows the run of one goal in nine games has to end now.
He said: “It’s plain and simple – we’re not scoring goals and we need to if we are start picking up points.
“Our fight is with ourselves and we need to start scoring goals and picking up three points more often. We’ve drawn far too many times this season and it’s not good enough.
“There are too many occasions where we have clear-cut chances and we are not taking them. It’s everyone in the team who need to take responsibility for it and start chipping in with goals.
“It’s another clean sheet and the performance was there but I want to be taking three points.
“If we had a bad performance and took the three points I’d take that all day long but we need to start picking up points.
“It’s frustrating just now because we’ve had far too many draws and there have been too many times where we’ve created -cut chances but not taken them. Right now as a collective we need to start scoring more goals.”
The result leaves Aberdeen with six games left to catch Jack Ross’ side and while focusing only on his own team Scotland under-21 captain McCrorie insists Aberdeen are still in the hunt despite drawing a blank once more on Saturday.
He said: “When teams like Hamilton come up we should be taking three points and we had numerous opportunities to do it.
“I’m not focusing on Hibs, I’m focusing on Aberdeen. We’ve got Dundee United next and we’ll work hard in the next two weeks on a game plan.
“We’re still up there. We had a lot of good work at the start of the season but we’re in a sticky spell at the minute in terms of goals but we’ll get out of it.
“The goals need to start to come as you don’t win games if you are not scoring.”
Aberdeen’s lack of goals comes after a complete overhaul of their forward line but McCrorie does not accept the January changes in attacking options is a factor in his club’s poor record of having scored only three goals in 2021.
He said: “If you are at Aberdeen you are a good player and there are loads of quality players within the squad.
“We’re all good players, professional footballers. A draw was a bad result as Aberdeen were expected to win but confidence is not a problem.
“Look at the squad on paper, we should be taking confidence from that and we need to start playing better and scoring.”
