Stained Leg 1

I ran into some trouble with glue soaking in to the wood. Despite a large amount of sanding, the area where the glue was didn't stain as darkly as the rest of the wood. I've been trying to apply a third or even fourth coat to only the affected areas and feather the edges to blend it in with the rest, but it doesn't seem to be working. I've got a close family friend who is a cabinet maker who has given me a bunch of really good pointers (and helped cutting the bottom shelf - my table saw was too small) who might know what to do. You can see the lighter areas in the photo. This is with a single coat of stain only. The camera makes the spots appear worse than they really are.