If Aberdeen’s performance against Hamilton on Tuesday night is replicated when they face Celtic on Saturday, then their challenge for this year’s Premiership title will be as good as over before it has barely begun.
If Celtic see off Ross County as expected tonight then defeat Derek McInnes’s side at the weekend, it will leave Aberdeen 10 points adrift of Brendan Rodgers’ men, who would also have a game in hand.
Aberdeen can take heart though from the six-game winning run they were on prior to their Hamilton horror show, and captain on the night Graeme Shinnie says that even though they were uncharacteristically poor against Accies, they can get their act together in time for the Saturday lunchtime showdown with the champions.
“It brings us back down to earth as we have been on a good run,” Shinnie said.
“That counts for nothing. We feel we should be coming down here and winning three points. We haven’t and Hamilton deserve credit for playing well on the night.
“It was very frustrating for us. We had a few chances in the game but I felt we didn’t play to the standard we have been at recently.
“That is very frustrating but we did create chances and could have nicked a draw from the game. We want to do well and win every game.
“It is very frustrating whenever you have a setback like this, but there is nothing we can do now. We need to focus on Saturday’s game as that is a big one for us and look to win there.”
After such a lethargic display and demoralising defeat, the prospect of facing up to an in-form Celtic side would be one that many sides wouldn’t relish, but Shinnie believes it is the perfect fixture to shake any disappointment out of the Aberdeen players’ systems.
And the Dons record against Celtic at Pittodrie last season is giving Shinnie heart that they can claw back their deficit at the top of the table.
“A win is a win and we want to win every game we play,” he said.
“At this stage of this season you want to put as many wins on the board as possible. There is no better game to do that than Saturday.
“They have had a good start but we beat them twice at Pittodrie last season. We can take massive confidence from that and we were on a good run before the Hamilton match.
“As long as we play well on the day we know we are in with a chance of winning.
“We had a bit of a slow start to the season but we picked up form. We put a few wins together and it is all about doing that again and trying to put points on the board. We want to do that again on Saturday.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel