Graeme Shinnie urges Aberdeen to use cup final ‘hurt’ as motivation

Graeme Shinnie has warned his Aberdeen team-mates there can be no Viaplay Cup final hangover as they bid to improve their cinch Premiership predicament.

The Dons lost 1-0 to Rangers in the Hampden final on Sunday, just a few days after their gruelling Europa Conference League campaign came to an end.

Aberdeen’s league form has suffered amid their cup commitments and they sit 10th in the table after winning just four of their opening 15 matches.

Captain Shinnie has told his colleagues they must ensure they are now fully focused on their upcoming Premiership matches, starting with Wednesday’s visit of Livingston.

“I told the boys after the game we need to use the hurt as fuel for the rest of the season,” said the midfielder.

“We can’t afford any sort of hangover, we need to turn our league season around.

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

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

“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 and start climbing up the table.

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

Aberdeen had a strong finish to last season to nick third place from Hearts and Shinnie still believes they can do likewise now they are about to revert to playing domestic matches only for the remainder of the campaign.

“This season has been gruelling, to be honest,” he said.

“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 and you have to deal with it.

“It has been tougher than playing down south because in the European games you put so much into them.

“But that’s what you want to be doing as a club, so we have to get used to it and learn how to deal with it.

“Now we have a run of league games we need to win to get to where we want to in the table.

“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, but we have also had some good performances as well.

“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.”