Graeme Shinnie announces his own amazing Scottish Cup history and names person who deserves Aberdeen success most

Daily Record

24-05-2025

After his captain success with Inverness, he claims a little slice of history by skippering two teams to Cup glory
Graeme Shinnie has no intention of calling it quits at Aberdeen anytime soon.
But if the curtain was to come down on his career today, the Dons' courageous captain insists he could walk away a happy man.
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After four failed final attempts in a red jersey, of course it would have been easy for him to give up, to hide away from the hurt he'd experienced trudging up the Hampden steps so many times before.
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But having forced himself to go through the emotional roller-coaster one more time, it was finally fifth time lucky for Shinnie and his Aberdeen side.
Now for a man who previously led Inverness to Scottish Cup triumph back 2015, he claims a little slice of history as he becomes the first man to skipper two different teams to tournament glory.
Shinnie will be back for more next term. But whatever happens, he will go on wearing the same smile that was plastered across his face last night.
'It always takes a little while to sink in,' said the grinning midfield man after his 300th Aberdeen appearance. I'm just enjoying the celebrations really.
'We've been so close so many times before. I don't know if it's so much about losing belief. It's more that chances become fewer and fewer. Coming into this one, I thought it could be my last, so I had to make it work.
'Now I don't have to worry anymore about winning in the future. I still want more — but I could retire tonight and be happy.
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'It's what you want in football. To leave a legacy. I've had a lot of opportunities to win silverware and I haven't managed to do it. I've never shied away from it, it's what I want. I've been close but not close enough.
'I knew if I did it today, I'd be the first captain to do it with two clubs. To make this sort of history, it's a very overwhelming feeling.'
There's no chance of Shinnie quitting now, though, not when there is no the prize of guaranteed European group stage action to be savoured. 'I can keep going,' he said.
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'Getting into the Europa League play-offs was massive. It was vitally important. Let's not beat around the bush: we had a really up and down season and we had a really poor end to the season, which put us to fifth.
"That's not the end of the world but it's not where we felt we should have been.
'After playing Hibs and being in the fight for third to then finish fifth was disappointing.
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'But in football you always get another chance and this was our last chance of the season to make it work. And we've won it.'
That was an outcome that nobody outside of the limits of the Granite City gave Thelin's men.
Widely dismissed after a succession of heavy beatings at the hands of Brendan Rodgers' Treble-chasers, the only question among the neutrals was how many the Hoops would win by.
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'Everyone wrote us off and maybe rightly so,' admitted Shinnie. 'The games this season against Celtic, we've tried to play our own way and it hasn't worked.
'The manager's got a style of playing. But we knew in this game we had to do something different. We've did that - we gave ourselves a chance and it's paid off.'
Thelin took the bold call of ditching the 4-2-3-1 system he's stuck rigidly to all season, moving to a five-man backline designed to suffocate Celtic's space.
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And it worked a treat as the Hoops became bogged down in a swamp of red jerseys.
'It was very brave,' said Shinnie. 'But I think it's good management. It's what we needed.
'It's what a lot of people probably thought was needed.
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'We needed to be harder to beat because some of the games against Celtic, we've had some good chances in the game and played alright but you get beat 5-1. But today we wanted to make it hard for them.
'The first half was disappointing because we defended so well.
'We didn't have a shot but they didn't have much either and then you concede from a set-piece, which is disappointing. But when you win you don't care how the game's gone or how you played.'
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Shinnie led from the front all game, crunching into tackle after tackle.
And when it came to spot-kicks, he was first up for Aberdeen too to sweep home emphatically before Dimitar Mitov's double stop sealed victory.
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'In the [2014] League Cup [with Inverness] I took a knock in extra time and I didn't take a pen, ever since then, I've regretted that,' he admitted. 'Every time there's been a penalty shootout, I've wanted to go first.
"I'm the captain of the club. I want to lead. I want to be the one that sets the tune.
'My legs were a bit tired, so I don't know how I found the top corner. But I felt confident going up.
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"I actually had a go at Dimi yesterday because he didn't save a pen while we were practising them. He's been the hero today.'
There were hugs for everyone at full-time. Chairman Dave Cormack was embraced warmly - but not quite as tightly as Shinnie's daughters Penelope and Verity.
'Ten years ago when I won it with Inverness, my eldest daughter was about four months old and my youngest obviously wasn't born, so I wanted to sort of renew the memories and them being on the pitch is perfect,' he explained.
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'As for Dave, he deserves it. He's an Aberdeen fan. He lives for the club. He wants the best for the club. He's invested a lot of money into the club and he deserves this more than anyone.
'The city will be bouncing too. They've waited a long time for the Scottish Cup, 35 years or whatever it is. They deserve it.
'They've backed us through a rocky season. An unbelievable start, a very bad middle. Then we got back on course and had a bad end to the season.
'To have 25,000 here supporting us again… when everyone thought Celtic were going to win, they backed us. Dave backed us by getting the 50-50 [ticket] split.
'The fans backed us and then the players rewarded them."