Graeme Shinnie slams 'unacceptable' Aberdeen display as skipper makes early exit admission

The embarrassed Dons skipper admits he would have walked out if he had been in the Pittodrie stands for the 3-0 St Mirren loss

Embarrassed Graeme Shinnie admitted Aberdeen’s below-par performance was so bad that he would have walked out if he had been in the Pittodrie stands.

The Dons skipper apologised to the Red Army and knows his under-fire squad now need to show their mettle and react in the right way at Ross County on Tuesday. The furious home crowd turned on manager Barry Robson and his Dons players again after another dismal Premiership afternoon.

“Of course the fans are going to react the same way I would have done,” Shinnie claimed. "I would have left the ground before the end as well and I keep banging on that it’s not acceptable. Everyone knows that and all I can do is apologise to the fans as losing 3-0 at home for Aberdeen against anybody shouldn’t happen. We have the character in the dressing room to put that right against Ross County. You have to stand-up now and be counted as you can’t go into a shell as we need to look forward to Tuesday to try to turn it around.

"It will be a big test as they will have seen what happened today and be licking their lips. But it’s about having the character to stand up to that and put things right.”

Robson was furious after the game and threw his team into the firing line. Shinnie nailed things with his description.

He said: “Embarrassing, unacceptable and the first half especially was shocking. Performances like that at home are totally unacceptable. The manager is bang on in his criticism as it’s hard to talk about in any sort of way.

“We know that as a squad that it’s not good enough and the first half was probably up there with one of the worst since I’ve been here. It was bad and from me as the captain to all the way through the team it wasn’t good enough.

“We were slack on the ball, giving it away and when teams come here that’s what they’re going to want to happen. We sort of fell into that after starting ok but we gave away another bad goal.

“We had a bit of momentum in their half then conceded a poor goal and overall it was just a really bad day. There are no acceptable excuses and I’m not going to make any.”

Aberdeen did go out and tried to get on the front foot but the problem is that their 3-5-2 formation is becoming too predictable. Teams know how to nullify things and Robson needs to come up with a plan B and C. His team also goes too direct at times and that played right into the hands of Alex Gogic and his defence who mopped everything up with relative ease. The midfield is missed out too often and the defence which had looked reasonably solid is now losing cheap goals.

St Mirren hadn’t scored in more than 300 minutes but it all came together at Pittodrie.. They took the lead after they had a shot blocked and captain Mark O’Hara stepped up to blast it low into the net. He had a chance to make it two when VAR pulled up Richard Jensen for handling a Lewis Jamieson shot. O’Hara stepped up but put his penalty wide.

The Dons had a few chances but it was hardly free-flowing. St Mirren always looked dangerous on the break and manager Stephen Robinson got his shape and tactics spot on. His team got their second when Scott Tanser put in a great low cross and it allowed sub Jonah Ayunga to ghost in unmarked at the back post. They got their third when VAR came into play to give them another penalty, after Stefan Gartenmann had fouled Toyosi Olusanya. Greg Kiltie made no mistake as he put it high past Roos in stoppage time.

Shinnie acknowledged his team have become too predictable and are making too many defensive errors.

“Possibly that’s the case but that’s down to us as players to do more on the pitch,” the midfielder stated.

“We need to be better as a team and not lose goals the way we have been doing. It’s been not just against St Mirren, it’s been all season and we’ve not had many clean sheets.

“Looking back at the end of last season we built our foundations on being hard to beat. We weren’t conceding many goals then so it’s frustrating right now.

“We are just not doing our jobs on the pitch and that’s what it comes down to so we have to take responsibility for that. Football games come around fast and we have another one on Tuesday to go out and put things right.”

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