Shinnie apologises to fans for late collapse

Aberdeen midfielder Graeme Shinnie admits they deserve to be criticised for their late collapse against Rangers.

The Dons were looking for an 11th consecutive home victory and to extend their lead over Rangers in the Ladbrokes Premiership to a surely insurmountable 15 points, but Shinnie is annoyed they could not carry their winning form into Sunday’s game.

Kenny Miller struck the opener in the 79th minute at Pittodrie and both he and Joe Dodoo netted again within the following five minutes.

Shinnie told Red TV: “There is nothing worse than conceding three goals the way we did and falling apart. It’s the angriest feeling you can have in football and we need to deal with it and take the criticism when it comes.

“Losing bad goals has killed us. We can only apologise to the fans, it’s not good enough on our own part.

“We had control of the game and lost a stupid goal, which is not like us to be honest.

“We have been defensively solid, we have had five clean sheets in a row.

“It’s fine and well doing it against teams like that. We beat Dundee 7-0, which is fine and well, but these Rangers games are the games that count and we have not done it, so we need to take the criticism.”

Aberdeen face St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Saturday in their final game before the split.

“We need to analyse it, it will hurt for the next couple of days, and then we need to try and move on,” added Shinnie. “We have another big game next weekend.

“We need to stick together as a team and all we can do now is to look to the next game.”

We can only apologise to the fans, it’s not good enough on our own part. GRAEME SHINNIE