Barry Robson frustrated by Graeme Shinnie dismissal in win over St Johnstone

Posted Sunday, April 02, 2023 by PA

Barry Robson admitted the late dismissal of Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie took a little bit of shine off Saturday’s 1-0 victory away to St Johnstone.

The manager was delighted to see his side hold on for a fourth win on the spin after Remi Matthews fumbled Angus MacDonald’s effort into his own net.

But he was left “frustrated” when the influential Shinnie was shown a second yellow card after being deemed to have tripped Drey Wright as the match entered stoppage time. The skipper – who has been at the heart of the Dons’ recent resurgence under Robson – will now miss next weekend’s match at home to Kilmarnock.

“I got a player sent off and it’s never been a sending-off,” he said.

“It’s just frustrating. VAR can’t even look at that because it’s two bookings.

“I’m standing right beside it and we’re all looking at it going ‘come on’. The frustrating part for me is that’s our captain missing for the next game. There were a lot of decisions that were…actually I can’t speak about referees.”

The Dons are now within a point of third-placed Hearts after a strong run of form since Robson took the reins following Jim Goodwin’s sacking at the end of January.

“We’ve managed to build a bit of resilience in the group, you can see that,” he said. “You’ve got to get that unity before you can go and become a proper football team.

“We’ve done that recently, you can see everybody wants to be a unit and work together.

“We’ve put some brilliant performances in and we’ve also put in some performances that weren’t great but we’ve shown our resilient side with it – the fight, the determination, the drive – because you’re not going to play well all the time.”

Aberdeen were aided by the sending-off of their former player Andy Considine, who was dismissed – following a lengthy VAR review – for a denying Bojan Miovski a goal-scoring opportunity after just three minutes.

With Dan Phillips having been sent off at the end of the first half in the recent home draw with St Mirren, Saints boss Callum Davidson – who admitted his side’s top-six hopes are all but over – rued the impact of red cards on his side’s form.

“That’s 150 minutes in the last two home games we’ve played with 10 men,” he said.

“If we want to win games, we can’t get players sent off early and give ourselves long afternoons.”