Graeme Shinnie impressed by ‘brilliant’ Ross Doohan against Celtic

Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie praised stand-in goalkeeper Ross Doohan for his display against Celtic as the midfielder vowed to take the positives from their close encounter with the champions.

In the wake of Dimitar Mitov’s hamstring injury, Doohan was making only his second league start and fifth Dons appearance in all after joining the club 18 months ago.

The former Celtic goalkeeper made two excellent stops from Reo Hatate and Adam Idah before being beaten by the Japan midfielder in the 78th minute as Aberdeen lost 1-0.

Shinnie told Red TV: “I thought he was brilliant. He has waited a long time to get this chance. Unfortunate to lose Dimi obviously but those moments give other people opportunities and I thought Ross did brilliantly when called upon.

“He made some big saves, had some good kicks and to battle on from what looked like a game-ending challenge early on, fair play to him, he was brilliant.

“It was good to see other players come in. I thought Jimmy McGarry was brilliant as well and good to see Dante (Polvara) back on the pitch. Some positives from the game that we need to take forward.”

Leighton Clarkson missed a big chance moments before Hatate’s excellent finish and Aberdeen pressed for an equaliser.

The defeat means they have taken just two points from four matches to drift seven behind Celtic in the William Hill Premiership but Shinnie was encouraged by their display as they look to regain their impressive run of results.

“We probably deserved a point but we didn’t get it,” he said. “We had a lot of good moments, limited them to few chances, I thought the chances were probably even and just disappointed we didn’t take one.

“But it was a lot more like us and we did a lot of good things and we have to take that into Saturday.

“We have had four tough games. We have a home game now against St Johnstone before a little break. Full focus is now on St Johnstone and looking to win that game.”