Old Firm holds no fear for Shinnie

GRAEME SHINNIE is adamant Aberdeen have no reason to fear the Old Firm in the League Cup final.

The 25-year-old was in the Inverness Caley Thistle side beaten by the Dons when they lifted the trophy at Celtic Park in 2014.

This time they will face the winners of today’s semi Rangers and Celtic.

Shinnie said: “We don’t fear either of them. We’ll watch the game, relax and see who we’re going to face.

“This squad has players experienced in cup finals so when it comes around we will be ready for it.

“There is no better feeling in football than lifting silverware and at a team like Aberdeen there’s always a big expectation.

“We know what the fans want from us, so we’ll work hard to make it happen.

“I came here to win trophies so hopefully we can do that this season.

“There are league games to play between now and then so it will go on the backburner, but it’s nice to have there in the background.”

Shinnie’s view was that beating Morton was the most important thing yesterday, even if the Dons didn’t play particularly well.

He went on: We had a little scare to cope with when Quitongo got through on goal but that’s always going to happen in a match.

“Thankfully big Joe Lewis was able to make the save.”

Morton’s Jai Quitongo was frustrated at being unable to hit the net when it was 0-0.

He said: “If you look at their goalkeeper he’s massive.

“He’s like a big lamppost and when he was running at me I didn’t realise how big he was.

“I’ve tried to outfox him and he got his leg to it.

“Sometimes you only get one chance in a game and I think I should have taken it.

“But I can’t dwell on that. I thought everyone did themselves justice and nobody looked out of touch with Aberdeen.”

Team-mate Gavin Gunning felt Quitongo should have gone to ground under a challenge from Reynolds before he reached the keeper.

He said: “If Jai went down, it’s a penalty and the defender would have been sent off. We’d probably have won the game.”