Graeme Shinnie knows most people in Scottish football are questioning whether Aberdeen can maintain their title push.
The Dons skipper and his team are looking to get back to winning ways at Hibs tonight after suffering their first league defeat of the season at St Mirren. It’s the first Premiership setback under Jimmy Thelin but Shinnie is more interested in the reaction at Easter Road than talking about title pushes in late November.
He knows his team have made a decent start but things could still quickly turn. That’s why they weren’t getting too high when they were winning and can’t get too low after a rare defeat. Shinnie said: “People will talk, it’s the way it goes. It’s a long season, people talk about title challenges in October and November – which is madness.
“It’s so early because within five games it can look very different if you get carried away. I know it’s not what people want to hear and it’s boring but things can change very quickly if you let yourself get carried away.
“In-house, we are just focused on getting back to winning ways and letting the outside noise be as it is. There’ll always be the scrutiny of, ‘Can Aberdeen keep it up?’.
“That’s not something we can control and is natural in football. It’s up to us to carry that pressure, that’s what it’s like being at this club. Whether it was last season when we were underperforming or this season when we’re at the top end of the league. There is always pressure at clubs like this whatever you do.
“It’s about handling that and it’s also about controlling what we can do and not letting it affect us. We’ve had a great start to the season, we have to remember that and can’t let one defeat derail what we’re doing.”
Aberdeen are just three points behind Celtic but the midfielder insisted their immediate goal is trying to maintain or stretch the eight-point lead they have over third-placed Rangers. However, Shinnie has never hidden his desire to lift a trophy at Aberdeen.
And he said: “I wouldn’t say we’re trying to put pressure on Celtic, it’s about winning as many games as we can and picking up points. We have opened up a gap below us so we don’t want to lose that, we want to build on that.
“I’d never shy away from the fact that winning trophies is something I am desperate to do at Aberdeen.
“It’s tough, especially when Celtic have been as dominant as they have been over the years. But there’s still life in me yet so I’ll continue to fight for as long as I can.”
Shinnie knows there is plenty to work on after their disappointment in Paisley. He said: “We didn’t do the things we had been doing well against St Mirren so we have to get back to that.
“We know we were too slow moving the ball, we didn’t move it fast enough or work it in behind enough. In this league if you don’t perform to a level you get punished for it.”
Aberdeen could also be up against an old familiar face tomorrow night in Junior Hoilett. The veteran had a decent spell at Pittodrie at the end of last season before his move to Hibs.
Shinnie added: “We know Junior’s qualities from his time here last season so we know we’ll have to stop him. We’ll have to make sure he doesn’t get into any momentum.”
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