Dundee travel to the Highlands on Saturday to take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle this weekend and so we take a look at a player who played for both clubs, Andrew Shinnie.
Andrew Murray Shinnie was born in Aberdeen on July 17th 1989 and started his football career at Rangers, coming through the youth ranks at Ibrox. The attacking midfielder made his debut for Rangers’ first team as substitute in the SPL for Dado Prso on March 17th 2007 and he did so after playing for the Rangers Under-19s in the morning and scoring two goals against St Mirren Under-19s.
However in five years at Ibrox he made just one further first team appearance and was loaned out twice to Dundee in season 2008/09 and in 2010. New Dundee manager Jocky Scott made Shinnie one of his first signings after taking charge at Dens for a third time and brought him on loan to Dens in November 2008 for the remainder of the season.
He made his Dark Blue debut on November 28th coming on as a substitute for Freddie Daquin in a 1-1 draw with St Johnstone and would go on to make 21 appearances that campaign. His scored his first Dundee goal in a 4-1 home win over Livingston in February and there was no doubt Shinnie was one of the successes that season.
Shinnie already had four Scotland Under-19 caps before he came to Dens and in March was called up for the Under-21 side for a double header against Albania. He won two Under-21 caps as a Dundee player, featuring in both European Championship qualifiers home and away against Albania and scored in the 5-2 win at the Falkirk Stadium on April 1st.
Shinnie returned to Ibrox in the summer and broke his foot with Rangers pre-season but once he recovered Jocky Scott brought his back to Dens for a second loan in January 2010. He made a further 14 appearances for The Dee as they fought Inverness for the First Division title and when the Highlanders were eventually victorious and were promoted to the SPL, they signed Shinnie on a two year contact after he impressed on trial when he was released by Rangers in the summer.
Andrew made his ICT debut in their first game back in the SPL away at Motherwell and scored his first Inverness goal in a 2–1 home victory over St Mirren on 1st October.
A month later Shinnie scored a hat-trick as his team beat Kilmarnock 6–3 at Rugby Park then on December 17th, he came on as a substitute against former club Rangers at Ibrox Park and scored to make the it 1–1.
In January Shinnie scored his eighth goal of the season as Inverness beat Dunfermline Athletic 3–1 in the Scottish Cup fourth round replay but broke a metatarsal during the match. The injury required surgery which was expected to keep him out for the rest of the season but he returned for the last three games of the campaign.
By mid-October the following year, Shinnie had scored another seven goals and manager Terry Butcher was anxious for him to extend his contract At the end of the month he scored the first goal in Thistle’s 3–0 League Cup quarter-final defeat of Rangers at Ibrox two weeks after he had scored against Dundee at Dens. His form earned him his first call-up to the full Scotland squad and when he took the field in the friendly away in Luxembourg in November, he became the first Inverness Caledonian Thistle player to be capped for Scotland at senior level.Â
In January Shinnie scored the opening goal in the League Cup semi-final against Hearts at Easter Road but the Jambos equalised and won the match in a penalty shootout. His continued good form however didn’t go unnoticed and earned him a place on the four-man shortlist for the 2012–13 SPFA Players’ Player of the Year Award and a place in the PFA Scotland SPL Team of the Year.
In was perhaps inevitable then that would be suitors would be descending on the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium to look at Shinnie and in April he signed a pre contract agreement with English Championship side Birmingham City.
In the next three seasons Shinnie made 73 appearances for the Blues, signing a two year extension to his deal in the summer of 2015 but when he fell behind the pecking order to loanee Diego Fabbrini, he joined Rotherham on loan himself in January 2016.
He returned to St Andrews in the summer and despite showing up well in pre season was allowed to join Hibernian on a season long loan where he hopes to be able to help the Hibees return to the Scottish Premiership at the third attempt.
Dundee FC Appearances & Goals
League: 27 + 4 subs, 1 goal
Scottish Cup: 1 + 2 subs
Totals: 34, 1 goal
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Appearances & Goals
League: 52 + 5 subs, 19 goals
Scottish Cup: 3 + 1 sub, 1 goal
League Cup: 4 + 1 sub, 1 goal
Totals: 66, 21 goals
