Winger Mackay-Steven is focusing solely on rest of this campaign

Gary Mackay-Steven says he still has a lot to achieve at Aberdeen, after speculation about him leaving the club last month.

The winger is out of contract in the summer and it looks like he will leave the Dons.

MLS side New York City were in touch with the Reds last month to notify them they planned to offer Mackay-Steven a pre-contract for when his Pittodrie deal expires at the end of the season.

But with the American soccer season starting in March, New York made a bid to sign the 28-year-old late in last month’s transfer window.

The offer was knocked back and Mackay-Steven, who played for 90 minutes in Aberdeen’s 4-2 home loss to Rangers on Wednesday, remains in the Granite City.

The Scotland international says he has yet to decide on his future and is determined to help the Dons have success this season.

They are battling at the top end of the table with Celtic, Rangers and Kilmarnock as they bid for a fifth successive top-two finish and Queen of the South visit Pittodrie in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

Mackay-Steven said: “I think bids were made for me, but, ultimately, I have got a lot of goals to accomplish here.

“I’m very happy at Aberdeen so that is where we’re at just now. I’ve still not made any decisions on the future, but I have let the gaffer know that.

“He knows that I’m very happy and that we have got a lot of things to achieve together here.

“I’ve been in enough transfer windows with different speculation to know not to focus on the talk. I let other people deal with that and always focus on my football.

“The Scottish Cup is a massive goal for everyone here. It was a disappointment collectively and personally in the League Cup final.

“Hampden is where we feel we need to be and Sunday gives us a chance to get into a quarter-final.

“A club like Aberdeen always needs to be competing for honours and we’re looking to do well in the cup.”

Wednesday’s loss to the Gers leaves the Reds in third, five points adrift of Steven Gerrard’s team in second and 11 points behind leaders Celtic.

Mackay-Steven says the midweek defeat has to be used as motivation for the rest of the campaign. He added: “It’s a tough league and there are a lot of good teams at the top and a lot of good teams at the bottom.

“Everyone is capable of springing upsets and getting results, so we need to focus on ourselves and make sure our levels don’t drop and take our second-half performance and recent performances into the next run of games, starting on Sunday and going forward in the league.

“We need to use the defeat on Wednesday as motivation for the rest of the season. It hurts right now and it will continue to hurt until the next game.

“We need to look at what we did do well and hopefully get back to winning ways against Queen of the South.”

On Wednesday both sides finished with 10 men after Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna and Rangers’ Alfredo Morelos were sent off early in the second half following an altercation.

With the teams down to 10 and the Dons trailing 3-2, Derek McInnes’s side dominated, but couldn’t find an equaliser and sub Jermain Defoe got the Gers’ fourth on the break late on.

Mackay-Steven said: “Once the dust settles and we look back on the game, there are lots of positives we can take into the final part of the season and the game with Queen of the South on Sunday.

“Right now we are annoyed and upset because we lost the game and dropped points to our closest rivals in the league, but there were some positive performances on Wednesday.

“We were confident the chance and the goal would come for us at 3-2. We were always attacking, pressing and putting dangerous crosses in the box.

“We were just looking for a little opening – to be fair to them, Rangers defended well – but we were in the ascendancy and the team that was looking more likely to score.

“It’s frustrating we couldn’t equalise, but ultimately it maybe goes back to the first half.

“You don’t want to be 3-1 down against a good team like Rangers.”

The Dons were 3-1 down at half-time following a double from Morelos and a James Tavernier penalty just before the break, given against McKenna.

There was some disappointment at ref Bobby Madden’s decisions to award a spot-kick and red card McKenna.

Mackay-Steven said: “I’m not really sure what to make of their penalty. I couldn’t really see it. It was given for handball and I know the boys weren’t happy with it in the dressing room.

“For the sendings off, they both came together and I’m not really sure what happens, it’s one I’d need to see back.

“But they both got sent off and it’s obviously a big loss for us when Scott goes off.”