Aberdeen veteran Graeme Shinnie still feeling fit and ‘experiencing new things’

Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie insisted he still has plenty left in the tank as he prepares to play in a Scottish Cup final a decade after he last lifted the trophy with former club Inverness.

The veteran – who turns 34 in August – played the full 120 minutes as the Dons eventually overcame nine-man Hearts 2-1 after extra time in Saturday’s semi-final.

Shinnie was 23 when he skippered Inverness to victory over Falkirk in the 2015 final, and now he is driven by the chance of landing a second winner’s medal in the tournament next month.

“I think it’s 10 years ago when I won it with Inverness – that’s making me feel old,” he said.

“When you get to this age and you’re still playing in games like this, it’s very enjoyable.

“I still feel good, I feel fit – 120 minutes there and I still felt good towards the end of the game.

“As long as my body copes, I’ll keep going.”

Shinnie admitted he was starting to think the semi-final was heading for penalties before substitute Oday Dabbagh popped up with a 118th-minute winner shortly after Cammy Devlin became the second Hearts player to be ordered off, with Michael Steinwender red-carded late in the first half.

“I thought Hearts played well when they went down to 10 men,” said Shinnie. “They naturally defended very well and looked to counter-attack on us.

“It was tough to break down at times. The pitch was a little bit dry with the heat and all that so it was hard to get a tempo to the game but we kept pushing right to the end to try and get a goal and thankfully it came. We don’t care when it comes around as long as it does.”

The Dons are now well placed to finish a roller-coaster season on a high after bouncing back from a mid-campaign slump in which they went 14 league games without a win following a 16-game unbeaten run at the start of the season.

Jimmy Thelin’s side have now lost just one of their last 11 matches and – in addition to having a cup final to look forward to – are still firmly in the mix for third place in the William Hill Premiership.

“I’m 33 now and it’s been a season that I’ve never experienced yet, I’m still experiencing new things,” said Shinnie. “It’s a long season and these types of things happen.

“It was important that we came through the bad spell and are now putting a bit of a run together. We’ve got six cup finals coming up. We want to finish the league strong and finish as high as we can.

“We’ve got a big game straight away against Hibs (on Saturday). The focus goes on to that and then we want to build a bit of momentum for the cup final.

“We don’t want to just get to the final and be happy getting there. We want to win it.”