A QUICK call to Oracene Price might be in order for Linda and Gary Shinnie over the next month or so because they are, for the first time, about to address a dilemma that has become routine for the mother of the women who most recently contested the Australian Open final.

Just how to strike the balance when two of your children are heading into one of the most important occasions of their lives knowing there is the potential for one to end the day elated with the other distraught?

It was never likely that Andrew and Graeme Shinnie would deal with it by proclaiming their love for one another as the Williams sisters do, but the younger of them reckons the clan will seek to embrace the specialness of next month’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

“It will be a good occasion for the whole family, I suppose my mum and dad can’t lose because they’ll have someone in the final either way,” said the 25-year-old whose fine goal at Pittodrie on Sunday earned his side their place in the semi-final alongside big brother’s Hibs.

“They will have to stay neutral and sit in the main stand – or maybe my mum will support me and my dad support him.”

While they played together for Inverness Caledonian Thistle for three years, before Andrew headed south to join Birmingham City four years ago, this will be their first competitive clash.

“It’s a new one for us because the only time we have played against each other was in a friendly when Inverness played Birmingham,” said Graeme.

“Apart from that day, we have always played on the same team. So it will be a great occasion and something that we will be able to look back on it – although who remembers it best will depend on who wins.

“He is two years older than me so at boys’ club he was always in a different age group, but we used to play football in the garden like brothers do and we used to play with our mates in the park as well, in big games of about 18 a-side.

“However to play against each other in Hampden in a Scottish Cup semi-final will be really special for everyone. Compared to the old days in the park beside my mum and dad’s house it will be like a different world.”

Graeme noted that in those days he suffered the inevitable indignities imposed upon junior siblings.

“Andrew used to stick me in goals and blast the ball at me so it might be a chance for me to get payback for all the balls he fired at me,” he said.

There is, though, also incentive for Andrew to level scores since he joined Hibs on loan only after their long-awaited Scottish Cup win last year and was merely a spectator, working as a TV pundit, when Graeme lifted the cup as Inverness skipper 12 months before that.

That said, Graeme is confident that both will leave fraternal matters until after the match.

“It won’t be a distraction,” he said. “He’s my brother before it and after it, but during the game he’s just like any normal opponent.”