Shinnie has eyes on a Cup repeat
GRAEME SHINNIE insists that Aberdeen can cap their season by lifting the Scottish Cup – if they can get Celtic “rattled”.
The Dons coughed up three goals in the first 11 minutes of their most-recent clash with the Bhoys, but have taken heart from the way they responded.
Now Shinnie believes the Reds can do what no other Scottish side has managed this season – find the chinks in Celtic’s as-yet impenetrable armour.
“You never know what’s going to happen in a cup final. If we play our best we will rattle Celtic and give them something to think about,” said the Aberdeen midfielder.
“Maybe they have had it a wee bit easy this season but I feel that in last Friday’s game we had them rattled at times.
“If we had maybe got another goal in the game we could have taken something out of it and maybe deservedly so.
“So we know that we can definitely rattle them and there are weaknesses there to exploit which is what we aim to do.”
The Dons were denied a penalty last Friday after Shinnie was felled in the box by Celtic stopper Craig Gordon.
The man himself believes it was a decision that should have gone in his favour.
Should another borderline decision be required at Hampden, he hopes luck will be on Aberdeen’s side this time – as they were two years ago when he lifted the Cup with Inverness.
“These things do happen. Obviously at Inverness we got away with the Josh Meekings handball in the semi-final against Celtic,” he said.
“That went our way, there’s no getting away from that, but you need these sorts of things in football to go and win things.
“I’m sure there will be some sort of decision on the day to have a go at, but we need to make sure we are on the right end of it.
“We had a disappointing time in the cups last season with a couple of tough draws but this season we couldn’t be much happier.
“Obviously we wanted to do better in the League Cup final but to be in two cup finals and have the chance to win one now is brilliant.
“But it means nothing if you come away with nothing and that will drive us on as we are desperate to win this time.”