Defiant Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie insists the time to judge his side will be in May.
The Dons’ outstanding start to the campaign has been overshadowed by an eight-game winless run which has seen them relinquish a nine-point lead on third-placed Rangers to drop to third place in the Scottish Premiership.
Jimmy Thelin’s side amassed 31 points from a possible 33 in their opening 11 matches but have taken just three out of the last 24 following a worrying loss in form.
But Dons skipper Shinnie has urged those doubting his side to judge their campaign at the end of the season instead of rushing to judgement at the halfway stage.
Shinnie said: “We’re still in a strong position. We’re not in as strong a position now because of our form but we can turn our form.
“It’s a long season, I’ve said it so many times a season is judged in May when the last game of the season is finished.
“You achieve nothing in October or November when you’re winning games and you’re on this massive high, and you’ve not lost anything when you’re on a bit of a low and you haven’t won in a few games.
“Things look a bit bleaker but nothing’s lost in these moments.
“We’ve still got so much to play for and we’re still in a strong position, but we need to improve, and I think that’s clear to see.
“We had a brilliant start to the season, and nobody can quite put their finger on what’s went wrong.
“But we are in a good position and that’s down to the start we had to the season which we can’t just write off.”
Shinnie will take a win by any means’ possible
Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Dundee United at Tannadice was the third loss in a row for Thelin’s side and the fifth of their eight-match winless streak.
But Shinnie believes there were positives to be found from the performance following the 4-0 loss at Kilmarnock on Boxing Day.
He said: “We were all very disappointed with the whole way everything went at Kilmarnock.
“The Dundee United game was a bit more positive in terms of the way we played.
“It was more like ourselves and more like our old ways and things that we talked about and worked on were much better.
“Losing the game in the last minute was a bit of a sucker punch but overall in the game we did a lot more things that were more like us.
“We just have to improve that bit further again to start picking up wins.
“We’re looking now to Thursday and trying to get back to winning ways, but also performance-wise keeping it to where we want to be in terms of how we want to play and how we want to win games.
“We just need to focus on performances and that’s why we want to win games now any way possible, but we want to also show our identity and what kind of team we were when we were winning those games.”
‘We looked more like what we want to be’
Shinnie had a watching brief from the substitutes’ bench at Tannadice but is set to return to the side in the absence of suspended team-mate Sivert Heltne Nilsen for Thursday’s game against Ross County at Pittodrie.
While frustrated at seeing his side concede the only goal of the game in stoppage time the Dons captain was encouraged by what he saw.
He said: “I watched it from the side so it was a different feeling to actually playing in it, but I felt for large spells of the game that the team looked comfortable.
“When we had possession of the ball we wanted to create more in the front areas, I think that was maybe one of the bits that was missing.
“We didn’t create enough chances that we would like but in terms of the shape of the team and the distances between units it looked more like what we want it to be.
“We’ve still got a lot more work to be done and a lot more improvement to do and to start winning games, but those are the positives that we take and build on from that game and look to get back to winning ways on Thursday.”
‘Teams are digging in and fighting’
Don Cowie’s Ross County stand between the Dons and a first win of 2025 when they visit Pittodrie on Thursday.
The Staggies showed their fighting qualities as they scored twice in stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw with Hearts in Dingwall on Sunday to add to the three they collected in their 3-0 win at Dundee on Boxing Day.
Shinnie knows the Staggies are more than capable after pushing the Dons all the way in Dingwall in August and his side must produce a performance if they are to start the new year with a win.
He said: “I think everyone’s picking up wins in through December and Christmas time where there’s a lot of games.
“A lot of teams are digging in and fighting and winning points where they can. I think we’re maybe the only ones that haven’t been doing that recently.
“You know it’s always going to be tough against Ross County but if we can play to the way we want to play and get back to what we were doing well which was winning us games then it’s a game we know we can win and try and use that to turn things around for us.”
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