Graeme Shinnie’s 25th birthday was ruined by Aberdeen’s Europa League elimination at the hands of Maribor on Thursday and now the former Caley Thistle captain is hoping for a winning start to the Premiership campaign tomorrow to ease his pain.
The Aberdonian was distraught when his own goal in added time gifted the Slovenians an undeserved 1-0 win in Slovenia and with it a 2-1 aggregate victory and a Europa League play-off against Azerbajan club Quabala.
Adam Rooney’s first-half penalty miss and substitute Jayden Stockley’s controversial dismissal had all but ended Aberdeen’s hopes before Shinnie’s unfortunate moment.
He said: “I made a tackle at the edge of the box then knocked the ball back to Joe Lewis. I’d turned around to start getting back up the pitch again and then just heard the roar from the crowd.
“It’s just one of those freakish ones where the ball took a massive bobble. There was nothing he could do about it.
“It was my birthday, too, so it’s not ideal to score an own goal on your birthday.
“We were trying to get a goal but because of them already having an away goal and it being so late, it didn’t change much in the game.”
For the third season in succession the Dons have been knocked out of the Europa League at the third qualifying round stage, now comes the slog of trying to get there again.
The Aberdeen flight did not touch down until 2.30am yesterday, meaning little time to recover before tomorrow’s match in Perth against a team which has caused Aberdeen more than their share of problems.
Shinnie said: “We’ll dust ourselves down and go again. We are all bitterly disappointed but you saw last year the way we started the season well and we’ve got to do that again.
“It all comes thick and fast, starting on Sunday. There’s no time to dwell on this. We have to get on with it.
“Every season, no matter what happens in Europe, winning a cup is always on our minds. That’s always an aim for the club and us as a squad. We’ll look to do our best in both cups. The focus just now is on the game on Sunday.”
Tommy Wright’s Saints have made a habit of upsetting Aberdeen, winning 5-1 at Pittodrie last October and 3-0 in Perth in April, results Shinnie finds hard to fathom.
He added: “I’m not sure why that is. That was last season. We’re a different team this season, we’ve got new players and are a strong squad. We’re looking forward to it and will be up for it.
“All our focus is on winning that game now.
“We’re a stronger squad than last season. There are many different dimensions to our game now.”
