Stephen Glass admits his Aberdeen side are still a work in progress after the 1-1 draw with Ross County, on the day David Bates joined the club from Hamburg.

County had taken the lead as Regan Charles-Cook followed in to turn home after Joe Lewis had saved from Harrison Paton, and it looked like they were going to hold that lead until Christian Ramirez forced home with two minutes left.

And having watched his side leave it late, Glass conceded: “You’re always hoping it’s coming.

“I don’t know if I worried it wouldn’t because we were creating so much. If we had a bit more quality about ourselves it could have been a different outcome. I was delighted with the way we kept going.

“We’re a work in progress.

“It’s a group of players playing together for the first time. We’ve not really trained since the start of pre-season because of the European games.

“We’ll now go Saturday to Saturday which allows more work on the training ground. We hope that bears fruit.”

On the signing of Bates, Glass added: “He’s a top centre-half. He’s got pace and power. He’s a young Scotland international and going to be a big part of he future of club.

“It’s important when we get players of that profile that they become our player.”

Ross County manager Malky Mackay was frustrated his side could not hold on for the win.

“I’m really proud of them in one sense but disappointed in the other,” he said. “It was like the walking wounded by the end there.

“Normally sitting here with a point we’d be delighted, but we’re disappointed because of the solid chances we created and the issues we caused them.

“Even after Aberdeen scored we got back on the front foot.

“I think you have to have a sense of togetherness. We’ve had a change of culture and a lot of bodies coming in.

“There’s no magic wand. It’s about training every day and working hard. There are debuts every week but they’ve pulled together well.

“We’re quite clearly tipped as the team to be relegated and that’s OK, but if I look at the first four games, if we keep going as we are we’ll be alright.

“We make sure the sum of the parts is more than the whole and we’ve seen that again today.”