Graeme Shinnie has insisted there is no need for concern at Aberdeen after the loss to Celtic extended their winless run to four matches.
Jimmy Thelin's side made a blistering start to the Scottish Premiership season with 11 games unbeaten in the league before defeat to St Mirren last month. Since then, Aberdeen have taken a point against Hibs and Hearts before the narrow loss to Celtic on Wednesday.
Captain Shinnie is certain there is absolutely no need to sweat over the recent sticky spell of form with the Pittodrie club still four points clear in second.
“There's no need to be worried anyway," he said. "We're still second in the league.
"Of course, you have three tough away games in a week, backed up with a home game against Celtic.
"I think if you individualise them, St Mirren wasn't good enough, we know that. Hibs we're 30 seconds to a minute away from winning that game. Bad defending cost us, so it was our own wrongdoing in that one.
"To be fair, I thought Hearts' point was probably a fair result in the end, so I can't really complain about that.
"Against Celtic it was a tough one. I thought we played well. I thought they had the bulk of the ball, but like I said, I thought we were dangerous when we won it back on the turnover and the transition.
"We just didn't do enough to get the ball in the net and that was the frustrating part.”
Read more:
Shinnie and his team-mates must now switch their focus to the visit of St Johnstone this weekend with ambitions to kickstart another enviable home record after their 15-game unbeaten run at Pittodrie was ended.
“As soon as one game ends, you look towards the next one and the next one's coming thick and fast, which is good," said Shinnie.
"It's a case of recovering now as well as we can. We've had a tough run of travelling and then a tough game against Celtic, so it's important that the boys rest, recover and a big game Saturday. Looking forward to it.”
Despite defeat to Celtic - stretching the gap at the top of the league to seven points - Shinnie is confident there were still plenty of positives.
He said: "I definitely would say there were a lot of positives for us to take. Just obviously frustrating not to get anything out of the game, but once we analysed it back, I thought it was a lot more like us.
"I thought our aggression and our pressing, especially on the transition, was good. We got into some great areas, we just didn't use it well enough, which is the frustrating part.
"We'll analyse it, we'll take the positives and now Saturday, go into that game looking to get a win.”
