Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie believes talk of Premiership title challenges this early in the season is madness.
The Dons suffered their first defeat of the Premiership campaign when they were beaten 2-1 by St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday.
With Celtic winning at Hearts, Jimmy Thelin’s side are now three points behind the Hoops, prompting discussion about whether the Dons can maintain a challenge.
Shinnie insists all talk of a title challenge is outside noise as far as he and his team-mates are concerned.
The Reds captain said: “People will talk, it’s the way it goes.
“It’s a long season. People talk about title challenges in October and November – which is madness.
“It’s so early, because within five games it can look very different if you get carried away.
“I know it’s not what people want to hear and it’s boring, but things can change very quickly if you let yourself get carried away.
“In-house we are just focused on getting back to winning ways and letting the outside noise be as it is.”
‘There will always be scrutiny’
Shinnie knows Aberdeen’s title prospects have been a subject of great debate among the media and football fans in Scotland this season.
But the combative midfielder insists trying to keep apace with the champions has not been discussed at Pittodrie.
He said: “There will always be the scrutiny of ‘can Aberdeen keep it up?’ – that’s not something we can control and is natural in football.
“I wouldn’t say we’re trying to put pressure on Celtic. It’s about winning as many games as we can and picking up points.
“We have opened up a gap below us so we don’t want to lose that – we want to build on that.
“It’s up to us to carry that pressure, that’s what it’s like being at this club.
“Whether it was last season when we were underperforming, or this season when we’re up at the top end of the league.
“There is always pressure at clubs like this – whatever you do.”
‘Trophies is something I am desperate to do at Aberdeen’ – Shinnie
It was the Hoops who ended Aberdeen’s unbeaten start to the season with a 6-0 win in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden earlier this month.
Brendan Rodgers has been a constant roadblock for the Dons captain during his time with Aberdeen, but Shinnie remains driven to bring silverware back to Pittodrie.
He said: “I would never shy away from the fact winning trophies is something I am desperate to do at Aberdeen.
“It’s tough, especially when Celtic have been as dominant as they have been over the years.
“But there’s still life in me yet, so I’ll continue to fight for as long as I can.
“It’s about handling that and it’s also about controlling what we can do and not letting it affect us.”
Shinnie focused on getting the Dons back to moving ball quickly and winning
Saturday’s league defeat was a sore one to take for Shinnie and his team-mates, but the captain is focused on responding when his side face Hibernian at Easter Road tonight.
The Hibees are bottom of the Premiership, with one win from 13 games, but Shinnie says the focus is on what his club are doing.
He said: “Hibs have had a lot of good performances but have lost a lot of late goals.
“I think it’s four or five games – and if they’d held on they’d have been right up the league.
“Obviously they are where they are for a reason, but I think they’re a good team with good players. We have to be aware of that.
“This week will be about us. It’s about getting back to what we’re good at and getting back to winning ways.
“We have had a great start to the season – we have to remember that – and can’t let one defeat derail what we’re doing.
“On Saturday we didn’t do the things we had been doing well against St Mirren, so we have to get back to that.
“We know we were too slow moving the ball, we didn’t move it fast enough or work it in behind enough.
“In this league, if you don’t perform to a level, you get punished for it.”
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