Derek McInnes admits his Aberdeen side now face a tough ask to overhaul Hibernian in the race for third place in the Scottish Premiership.
Saturday's goalless draw at home to Hamilton saw the fourth-placed Dons pass up the opportunity to close to within a point of the Edinburgh side.
Aberdeen passed up a gilt-edged chance to score through Florian Kamberi, but were thankful for Joe Lewis' fine save from Ross Callachan's deflected effort that kept the scores level with the point enough to lift Hamilton off the bottom of the table.
McInnes said: "It's a point closer to Hibs, but it's difficult to see it as a positive at the moment.
"We know the importance of third place this year. We've been the team that's always qualified for Europe and we want that third place. That would be a fantastic outcome.
"I had an idea in my head of what points total would probably get us third and – based on that – we've not got a lot of room for error.
"We have to outshoot Hibs and we certainly can't fall any further behind them."
Meanwhile, Hamilton boss Brian Rice was delighted to see his side move off the bottom of the table and praised the contribution of Callachan in his team.
"Ross has been everything I expected," he said. "His will to win and desire not to get beat is fantastic.
"He goes into every game believing he can score. I think he's just found a new lease of life.
"He's great to have around the club as he's not the brightest. There's plenty of laughs and plenty of fun with him but he's been fantastic for us this season."
