Kilmarnock boss Jim Jefferies was left shaking his head in frustration again after another costly afternoon of missed chances in the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen at Rugby Park.

After successive goalless Clydesdale Bank Premier League draws against Falkirk and Rangers, the Ayrshire side looked to be on their way to victory when Danny Invincibile fired in a 77th minute opener.

Striker Connor Sammon, who had missed an earlier sitter, should have sealed the points when he was set up by Invincibile but again failed to connect properly.

And even after Gary McDonald had capitalised on a mistake by Mark Brown from Charlie Mulgrew's free-kick to grab the equaliser, Killie substitute Allan Russell was foiled by Jamie Langfield when he was one-on-one with the Dons keeper.

Jefferies said: "I think the defenders could have done better when the ball came out of Mark's hands, Aberdeen had players following it up.

"But it shouldn't have mattered, we should have had the game won by then. We should have had three goals in the second half and we had a couple of chances to make it 2-0.

"We can only criticise ourselves for missing chances.

"You look at the last three games, we have made the best chances and we could be sitting here with nine points instead of three. We deserved more than we are getting but we have to put the ball in the net."

Jefferies admits he was celebrating prematurely with the Killie fans when David Fernandez set Sammon up just before the break only for the Irishman to mis-hit the ball at Langfield.

"I was just waiting for it to hit the net," the Killie boss said.

"He said he slipped at the vital moment and the ball hit his other heel.

"He had another chance when he volleyed it when he had time to bring it down or head it. He worked his socks off an did a lot of great things but he has to hit the net.

"Allan Russell laid on the pass for the goal but what a chance he had although it might go down as a save from the keeper.

"It is a fine line but I am not disappointed with the performance."

Brown claimed to be puzzled as to how he failed to hold Mulgrew's 35-yard free-kick, spilling it out to McDonald.

"To be honest, I don't know how the ball popped out to my right instead of out wide," he said. "But just as Mulgrew was about to hit the ball, our strikers ran across my line of vision so I saw it late.

"Unfortunately for us, it was all Aberdeen players running in.

"Everyone knows how deadly he is from free-kicks so the secret is not to give away them at the edge of the box.

"We had enough chances to win the game."

Aberdeen extended their unbeaten league run to six games, but boss Mark McGhee was surely stretching a point to make a point when he said defeat in a high-scoring game would have been preferable to the hard work his side made of securing a draw.

"Someone once said that they would rather have a 4-3 win than a 1-0 win but I think I would have a 4-3 defeat than draw 1-1 in a game like that," he said.

"I am frustrated that our creative side is not firing.

"Charlie was as poor with his set-pieces today as he has been. It was a long way out and when he stepped up I wasn't holding as much hope as I was a week ago but it was a really difficult one for the goalkeeper and I'm glad that we got it."

Dons keeper Langfield, who with five clean sheets before the game, was on the way to the SPL record of seven held by his former Dundee team Rab Douglas, when he was with Celtic, was not too downhearted by the loss of Invincibile's goal.

He said: "I didn't know I was close to the SPL record but I knew I had equalled the club record from 1991.

"No doubt Rab will be relieved and I will probably get a text from him."