Shiels: Dons' worst side ever

Apr 27 2008 By Euan Mclean

DEAN SHIELS reckons Hibs blew a big chance in the race for Europe - by failing to beat the worst Aberdeen side he has ever seen.

The Northern Irishman refused to speak about the sending offs that wrecked Hibs' hopes of a fightback because he reckons referees are seeking attention.

But he didn't hold back with his views of Aberdeen and believes that makes his side's failure to take all three points even more disappointing.

Shiels said: "We were confident we could win. Since I came to Scotland this is the poorest Aberdeen team I've seen. They were there for the taking - but we failed to do that.

"We were looking good when we took the lead but are not making teams have to work hard to score against us and were punished for that again.

"Thierry's red card killed our chances of coming back. Obviously the referee deemed what he said to him as a sending off offence so I will let him handle that.

"It's not my job to talk about the referee. I don't want to give him any limelight because I think that's what some of them want.

"It's a massive chance blown because when we saw the result of the earlier game at Motherwell we felt we could push on towards Europe. We failed.

"But we are still in the race and believe we can finish in third place."

Meanwhile, Dons goal hero Darren Mackie (far left) says their target is to hunt Hibs down and leapfrog them in the table to finish a disappointing season on as big a high as possible.

He said: "Hibs are our target, definitely. There are three games left to go and we're four points behind them after this win.

"We know it's going to be difficult but we want to finish as high up the league as possible."