Graeme Shinnie admits Aberdeen must deal much better with their heavy schedule

Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie admits they need to deal with their heavy schedule much better after being fortunate to come away with a point from Paisley.

The Dons never threatened outside their two goals but Bojan Miovski’s 100th-minute penalty earned a point against dominant St Mirren.

The Dons had impressed in another 2-2 draw against Swedish champions BK Hacken on Thursday in the first leg of their Europa League play-off but Sunday’s performance was nowhere near the same standard.

The Dons will have at least another seven games after European encounters and Shinnie knows they need to learn to handle the schedule.

“It was plain to see we were a yard off,” he said. “We were extremely delighted to come away with a point. We were a yard off the whole game.

“In the first half it showed – and I don’t think it got any better. We might have been even worse in the second half. “Yes, it was tough coming off the back of what we put in on Thursday, but we need to deal with that this season and we need to be miles better.

“The only positive we could take from it was that we got a point. We are back up the road now and we will focus on Thursday.

“It’s a good trait to have to play as badly as we did and come away with a point. To stick in, stay with it and get a point at the end is a good thing to have of course. But we can’t be playing like that.

“I know it’s after the game on Thursday, but we are going to have to deal with that and we are going to have to be so much better than that, we know that.

“This is the first time we have had to deal with it. There are a lot of new boys who have come into the side. But for me it is something different. It is similar-ish to playing down south. But playing away, travelling, getting on a flight and everything else is something that is new to us all.

“So this is the first experience of it and of course we will learn from it. We need to deal with it. It is going to come a lot of the time for us and we need to deal with it better as a squad.”