Evening Telegraph (First Edition)

Skipper urges his Dons to use pain of final as ‘fuel’ for rest of season

GRAEME Shinnie has warned there can be no cup hangover as Aberdeen bid to put their League Cup final loss behind them.

Their hopes were sunk in a 1-0 defeat to Rangers at Hampden on Sunday as James Tavernier’s late goal left Barry Robson’s side crestfalle­n at the National Stadium.

The pain of defeat was etched on the faces of Dons players at full-time and captain Shinnie has urged his team-mates to use the loss as motivation for the rest of the campaign.

He said: “I told the boys we need to use the hurt as fuel. We can’t afford any hangover, we need to turn our league season around.

“We need to use that game to drive us on.

“For a lot of the boys it’s their first cup final in Scotland so dealing with losing it is a new experience for them.

“It hurt on Sunday but we have to digest it, forget about it and move on.”

Shinnie is relieved to have a league match tomorrow to focus on.

Bottom club Livingston visit Pittodrie and Shinnie knows it is vital his side bounce back and pick up points between now and the winter break to move up the table from 10th.

He said: “There is a long way to go, we have a lot of league games and there’s also the Scottish Cup.

“The league is where we are focused now so it’s a good thing to be playing again on Wednesday.

“In football it’s always a good thing when you have a game quickly after a defeat because it’s a chance to get going again.

“We need to put a run together now, put the league form right.

“We had a good result against Hearts so we need to build on that, get some momentum and get up the league.”

A run to the cup final and the demands of European competitio­n have taken their toll on Barry Robson’s side this season.

The Aberdeen captain believes the schedule has been challengin­g for him and his team-mates but Shinnie is hungry for more Euro action next season.

To do that, however, he knows it is vital the Dons put a winning run together.

The midfielder said: “We went on a great run last season to get up to third so of course we believe we can do it again.

“We have had some poor games this season, we’re not going to lie, but we have also had some good performanc­es.

“We know what we’ve got in the squad and the quality we’ve got. But there has been enough talking now, we have to start doing it on the pitch and pick up.

“This season has been gruelling, to be honest.

“It has been tough, one of the toughest I’ve had in football.

“We have done a lot of travelling and had a lot of big games – but that’s what it’s like when you’re at the level of playing in European group stages and cup finals.

“It comes thick and fast, you have to deal with it.

“It was gutting, it wasn’t a great quality of game – it certainly felt like that playing in it, so I expect it was the same watching it.

“Both teams cancelled each other out and it felt in the game like one goal would take it either way.

“Unfortunat­ely for us, Rangers got it.

“Was the game panning out the way we hoped? Not really, we needed to be better on the ball.

“We misplaced a few passes and didn’t do enough in the game to win.

“One goal was always going to win it.”