Aberdeen 1-1 Motherwell: Managers frustrated by decisions

Scott McDonald came off the bench to level for Motherwell

Both managers reckon they were on the wrong side of decisions as Aberdeen and Motherwell fought out an entertaining 1-1 draw at Pittodrie.

Mark McGhee picked up his first point of a second spell with the Steelmen but was convinced Adam Rooney was offside when nodding the Dons in front.

And home boss Derek McInnes was frustrated to see a Mark Reynolds effort ruled out.

"It's tight but, having seen it again, he's onside," said McInnes.

Scott McDonald came off the bench to head in a 73rd minute equaliser for the visitors.

And only a series of great saves by Aberdeen goalkeeper Danny Ward denied McGhee victory against the team he played for and managed.

But the Scotland assistant manager was happy to take something from the game after the loss of the controversial goal on 42 minutes.

"I don't know if we should have won but we could've won," he said. "Connor Ripley also made a great save to make sure we didn't lose the game so that balances up.

"We feel the goal was a soft free kick from a dangerous area but we also felt Adam Rooney never came back onside so the goal he scores is in essence offside and we felt very aggrieved at half time.

"But the players answered another question from me in terms of having the desire to come back and get something against Aberdeen so I was delighted.

"Now they have set their standards they must reproduced that against Kilmarnock next week.

"They must put in the same sort of determination and skill to get something out of that game as it's easier to do that at places like Aberdeen.

"If you don't do that against Celtic and Aberdeen then you know you are going to get gubbed so we must raise our game in every match.

"The substitutes played their part when they came on and the good thing is I now feel I could perm any eleven from the 14 who took part today."

Motherwell thought Rooney scored from an offside position in the first half

Aberdeen have now taken just one point from the last 12 available and face the prospect of going to Celtic Park next weekend trailing the leaders by four points if the champions defeat Dundee United on Sunday.

Just a few weeks ago the Dons were five points ahead of Celtic, which made Reynolds' disallowed goal all the more galling for McInnes.

"It was at time in the game when we had real momentum and were playing well and it is disappointing that has been ruled out but that's the way it goes sometimes," he added.

"We passed up a couple of chances to win the game which maybe we wouldn't a few weeks ago but I thought we were the far better team until they scored.

"It was much more like us but Danny pulled off a few good saves near the end so maybe a draw was fair but that was much more like us.

"Losing a goal from a set play was disappointing and it was a cheap goal for us to lose and not getting a second goal came back to bite us."