ABERDEEN winger Matty Kennedy has backed the decision to keep playing Scott Wright despite the midfielder having agreed a pre-contract to move to Rangers in the summer.

Manager Derek McInnes selected Wright for Wednesday night’s goalless draw with St Johnstone, a move that infuriated many Dons supporters who reacted angrily on social media.

McInnes insisted he would continue to keep picking the 23 year-old for as long as he remains an Aberdeen player, seeing no reason to weaken his team for the run-in just to appease the fans.

And Kennedy felt his team-mate’s form meant he deserves to start.

He said: “I think since what’s happened, Scotty’s still been one of our main players. He works hard for the team, he’ll be wanting to play every game and he’s a big player for us.

“Even against St Johnstone, he was running his pan in. I don’t see why [he can’t play]. He’s put in a good performance for the team.

“I don’t really go on Twitter or read any stuff so I don’t really know what’s been said [about Wright’s ongoing involvement]. I just block it out, so I can only speak for myself personally.

“The fans have been brilliant with me since I arrived at the club and hopefully I show that on the park and put in a good performance for them.”

Kennedy was one of the few bright performers in an otherwise unremarkable contest against his former club.

Aberdeen’s push for second place seems to be wilting but the 26 year-old believes it will click back into place soon.

He added: “We’re just missing that wee bit of luck up front at the moment and hopefully that comes in future games.

“It is frustrating. We’ve been playing well for the last few weeks but it’s just that final bit, the ball isn’t going in the back of the net.

“We’ve got a lot of attacking players on the pitch. He’s got me and Jonny Hayes out wide playing in wing-back roles and it suits us. We’ve been creating chances.

“The gaffer does want a lot of attacking players on the park. Scotty and [Ryan] Hedges are in the number 10 roles and they’ve been playing well together. It’s just that final shot or cross or whatever isn’t coming off at the minute so hopefully it can in future games “Winning 5-0 or 6-0 doesn’t matter, winning 1-0 is three points the exact same. Hopefully we can try and do that in the next few games.

“We obviously want to try and finish as high as we can in the table. We’ll just take it game by game and try to pick up the three points.”