Shinnie relishing the pressure of another promotion push

With Luton chief Nathan Jones bringing in seven new additions to the side who were beaten in the play-offs last season, then the majority, if not all, supporters will be anticipating their team to go one step better.

Shinnie is also aware that is the aim, and is confident his experience of winning the Scottish Championship title while on loan at Hibernian last year will stand him in good stead.

The 27-year-old, who has joined on a season-long deal from Birmingham City, said: “I’d been down south for a while and the chance came up to go back north with Hibs, who are a really big club.

“I had a great season there, I loved it, the club achieved what it set out to achieve and it was difficult.

“There was a lot of pressure on because it’s such big club in that league, there was so much pressure on us to get promoted and some tough times.

“But that’s given me great experience for this season as I would imagine people are looking at us to get promoted this year, so we’ll be under pressure again, something I enjoy.

“There’s going to be pressure from outside, but also the pressure we’ll put on ourselves and you want that in football.

“You want to be successful and aim for the best and with the squad we’ve got, that’s definitely what we’ve got to be aiming for. It’s all right saying that on paper, we have to make sure we’re ready for it now.”

It’s not just Shinnie who Jones has brought in with promotion experience too, as James Collins has won League Two three times already, while Alan McCormack has gone up, with Marek Stech taking Yeovil from League One to the Championship earlier in his career.

Shinnie continued: “It’s a great squad, a very strong squad in the league which the gaffer was hoping to build and that’s what you need to challenge in this league.

“You need a big squad of good players and that’s what we’ve got. He’s brought in players of good pedigree and experience and that’s always vital in this league.

“Players who have experience of big games as there’ll be a lot of pressure games I’d imagine this season.

“You need a little bit of experience when it comes to pressure games and just to keep your head and know the experiences of when you’ve been there before and what to do.

“There’s a few players like that now in the squad who can help rub off on the squad and keep their head in the game.”