Graeme Shinnie slams 'unacceptable' Aberdeen display as skipper makes early exit admission

Embarrassed Graeme Shinnie admitted Aberdeen’s below-par performance was so bad that he would have walked out if he had been in the Pittodrie stands.

The Dons skipper apologised to the Red Army and knows his under-fire squad now need to show their mettle and react in the right way at Ross County on Tuesday. The furious home crowd turned on manager Barry Robson and his Dons players again after another dismal Premiership afternoon.

“Of course the fans are going to react the same way I would have done,” Shinnie claimed. "I would have left the ground before the end as well and I keep banging on that it’s not acceptable. Everyone knows that and all I can do is apologise to the fans as losing 3-0 at home for Aberdeen against anybody shouldn’t happen. We have the character in the dressing room to put that right against Ross County. You have to stand-up now and be counted as you can’t go into a shell as we need to look forward to Tuesday to try to turn it around.

"It will be a big test as they will have seen what happened today and be licking their lips. But it’s about having the character to stand up to that and put things right.”

Robson was furious after the game and threw his team into the firing line. Shinnie nailed things with his description.

He said: “Embarrassing, unacceptable and the first half especially was shocking. Performances like that at home are totally unacceptable. The manager is bang on in his criticism as it’s hard to talk about in any sort of way.

“We know that as a squad that it’s not good enough and the first half was probably up there with one of the worst since I’ve been here. It was bad and from me as the captain to all the way through the team it wasn’t good enough.

“We were slack on the ball,