OUR MUM & DAD DON’T KNOW WHO TO SUPPORT
Graeme: Semi clash with brother Andrew will split the Shinnies Dgdgddgdgd dgdgdgdgdd gdgdgddgdg gddgdgdgdg dgdgdgdgdd
because we’ve always played on the same teams.
“When I was younger Andrew used to stick me in goals and blast the ball at me.
“I think he wanted me to become a keeper so it might be a chance to get payback for all the balls he fired at me.
“He is two years older than me so at boys’ club level he was always in a different age group but we used to play in the garden.
“We used to play with our mates in the park as well in big games of about 18-a-side.
“So to play against each other in Hampden in a cup semi-final will be really special.
“Compared to the old days in the park beside our house it will be like a different world.”
Shinnie already has a Scottish Cup winner’s medal to his name after helping old club Inverness beat Falkirk two seasons ago.
And the 25-year-old is adamant there won’t be any grudges held against Andrew even if he’s best of enemies for the day against the Easter Road midfielder.
He said: “When we won the Cup at Inverness, Andrew was there. He did the BBC that day and came to the dressing room afterwards to congratulate the lads.
“There won’t be a distraction because he’s my brother. During the game he’s just going to be like GRAEME SHINNIE any normal opponent. We will have a game plan and it will be about carrying that through.”
Boss Derek McInnes admitted after the win over Partick that both Aberdeen and Hibs dodged a bullet by avoiding Celtic in Sunday’s draw.
But Shinnie is adamant next month’s tie is fraught with danger against the Cup holders.
He said: “Hibs are a good team but you don’t get easy games in semi-finals. Hibs are the holders so they won’t want to give that up. Looking at the draw it was going to be tough game anyway. They are a massive club with a massive following, I know that from watching Andrew’s games.
“We know what we’ll be up against but the focus has to go back on to the league games now.
“We knew it would be a tough game against Thistle because they have had some good results.
“But we have been the same apart from the Hamilton game. We showed our quality and deserved it in the end.”
Shinnie’s cultured 20-yard strike had the mark of a player who’s growing in stature and admits the goal that sunk the Jags was a case of practice making perfect.
He said: “We practise that every day in training so it was good for it to go in during a game.
“We’ve been desperate to get a good cup run – there is nothing better than going to a final.
“It will be a hard task though and we have the semi-final to take care of before we can even think about that.
“It’s a Scottish Cup semi and we will be giving it our best shot.”
I suppose our parents can’t lose because they will have one of us in a final