Pittodrie reverse was big spur for Shinnie

GRAEME SHINNIE insists Aberdeen were always confident they could end their Ibrox hoodoo and cement second spot in the Premiership standings.

The Dons clinched their first win in Govan for 26 years on Wednesday night as they moved nine points clear of Rangers heading into the final round of fixtures this weekend.

It was another accomplished performance from Derek McInnes’s side as goals from Shinnie and Ryan Christie early in either half secured a historic victory.

Martyn Waghorn pulled a goal back for the Gers on the hour back, but there was no late rescue act for Pedro Caixinha’s side on their final home outing of a disappointing campaign.

Caixinha claimed before the game that the Reds were coming to the end of their ‘cycle’ in the top flight but midfielder Shinnie is confident they can go from strength to strength.

He said: “I think over the course of the season, we deserve to be second and that’s down to the hard work of the management team and the players.

“The last time we came here we ended up losing 2-1, but we had a couple of chances that if they had gone in it would have been a completely different game.

“The one at Pittodrie we were disappointed with because we deserved better. So we took that coming into this game. We knew if we played to the top of our game we could win.

“It shows what the manager has done. We have a couple of players leaving and one set to come in.

“I wasn’t surprised [at our dominance]. We are second in the league for a reason and we wanted to go out and show that.

“We were disappointed to lose the goal because it gave them momentum. But even after that I thought we still created chances. We were disappointed to be only 2-0 up.”