Michael Stewart shares what has surprised him about Aberdeen star’s situation

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Aberdeen’s season has had plenty of twists and turns to date.

It was a dream start as Jimmy Thelin seemed unbeatable when he first took over at Pittodrie, with his side neck and neck with Celtic at the top of the table for a spell.

Then came a miserable 14-game winless streak as their season threatened to be derailed having at once stage looking stickons for at least third.

Having arrested that slide recently, Michael Stewart and Alan Hutton tipped the Dons for third. But that now looks to be Hibs’ to lose after their own remarkable run.

Aberdeen were also in last night’s Scottish Cup semi-final draw and will now face Hearts at Hampden for a chance to reach the final, so it could still turn out to be the memorable season it was looking like early on.

One man who has had a frustrating time though is Nicky Devlin.

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Stewart surprised as Aberdeen marginalise Nicky Devlin

Nicky Devlin has been such a key man for Aberdeen over the past two seasons, a brilliant signing on a free transfer from Livingston.

Even this season, the right-back has been one of the top performers and someone the Dons can always rely upon.

But after the January signing of Alexander Jensen, Devlin has been pushed out of the side. He missed out on the squad for the cup win over Queen’s Park, presumably through injury, but even before that was often on the bench.

And pundit Michael Stewart expressed his shock at that reduction in squad status.

He told Premier Sports’ Scottish Football Social Club show: “You need a core of the team that are understanding of the place, the club and can actually perform. Graeme Shinnie well and truly falls into that category.

“As do the likes of Nicky Devlin. I’m surprised. I know there’s been chat of a niggling injury of whatever else.

“I know Jensen has been alright since he came in but I’m surprised by how much Devlin has been pushed to the side and not playing.

“He’s been on the bench, not playing. I’m just surprised that he’s gone from like a Graeme Shinnie, a mainstay, to being not included.

“If he’s not going to be involved at Aberdeen there would be a number of clubs that would be looking and saying ‘we’d be quite interested in taking him.”

Shayden Morris Aberdeen impact

An Aberdeen player who may start to see his own game time upped is Shayden Morris.

The speedy winger has often had an impact off the bench but started on Saturday and provided two assists.

Stewart added: “Absolutely. He did start a few games after the bright start to the season where he was good coming off the bench. But he probably didn’t have quite the same impact.

“So he was in an unfortunate situation where he was probably having a greater effect on the game when he was coming off the bench.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
2	RangersRangers	29	18	5	6	59	26	33	59
3	HibernianHibernian	29	11	10	8	44	40	4	43
4	AberdeenAberdeen	29	12	6	11	38	46	-8	42
5	Dundee UtdDundee Utd	29	11	8	10	36	36	0	41
6	MotherwellMotherwell	29	11	4	14	34	48	-14	37

“But the last few games we’ve seen, they’ve stopped the rot and they’ve started to turn things round.

“In the Dundee United game they did well to come back to 2-2 and we did say the two goals for Kevin Nisbet might just be what he needed to get his confidence back. And it looks like it might be the case because that was a great finish.

“Also Shayden Morris when he came on made a difference in that game and obviously Queen’s Park he was unfluential as well. So it will be interesting to see ‘is he going to be starting more games for Jimmy Thelin?’