Motherwell boss Stuart McCall refused to criticise his players after seeing them throw away a two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw at Aberdeen.

The Steelmen had fought back from being a goal down after six minutes – when Gavin Rae headed the Dons in front – to be leading 3-1 with less than 10 minutes remaining thanks to goals from Michael Higdon, Shaun Hutchinson and Nicky Law.

However, late strikes from Niall McGinn and Josh Magennis gave Aberdeen a draw and meant that Well had to settle for a one-point lead at the top of the SPL instead of three.

Nonetheless, McCall is not be too dispirited with his side, who remain unbeaten this season.

He said: "There's no doom or gloom as we have come up to Pittodrie, scored three goals and drew against a strong Aberdeen side.

"We know what we are aiming for this season and what we are after so we will move on, but we will take a lot of positives from the game.

"I'm really pleased with how we went about our business but I'm disappointed to lose the two late goals in the manner we did."

Motherwell's players thought they should have had a penalty for a tug on Nicky Law prior to the two-goal fightback.

"I am too far back, but all the lads are saying it was a blatant pull back on Laws," added McCall.

"It was a terrific bit of football that carved them open and I think everyone in our team claimed for it."

McCall went on: "We should have run the clock down better. Would we have taken the point before we came up? Possibly but we always come to win games.

"I will analyse the game and will look at what we should have done better defensively, but I was really encouraged with some of the stuff we played going forward."

That bodes well for their double-header against the Old Firm as they face Rangers in the League Cup on Wednesday and then Celtic in the SPL.

"We take confidence from here and have the Old Firm back-to-back now," added McCall.

"We go to Ibrox and we have Celtic at Fir Park next Saturday.

"As much as they are disappointed in the dressing-room, as a footballer you look forward to these games.

"Going to Ibrox, it will almost be a full house, there'll be a siege mentality and that has the makings of a cracker as well."

Aberdeen boss Craig Brown was disappointed with his side's defending and said: "My big complaint is we lost three goals from set-pieces. That is unforgivable and unacceptable.

"We hardly lost a goal last season from a set-piece and we hadn't lost a goal at home this season so to lose three was quite unacceptable."