If I had known Dons wanted me I wouldn’t have gone on THREE summer benders
Loanee lost focus in close season but he’s now fighting fit for the title race
GREG STEWART has vowed never to repeat the mistake of having a boozy summer after it threatened to derail his season with Aberdeen.
The former Dundee winger admits he lost focus when he overindulged during the close season after a miserable spell on the fringes at Birmingham.
It meant Stewart wasn’t fully fit when the Dons made a shock move to take him on a season-long loan deal to Pittodrie in June and needed him ready for Europa League action.
The 27-year-old knows he has yet to set the heather on fire in his 12 appearances for the Reds but has been working twice as hard by doing extra training sessions during the international breaks to get up to speed.
He said: “It was my own fault because I should have kept on top of things. I had too good a summer but I will learn from that.
“I had a good few holidays and lots of drink. I had a poor season last time out and let my head go elsewhere.
“I enjoyed the summer too much. I went on three holidays. There was a boys’ holiday, I went away with the family and with the missus, just me and her.
“It is something I won’t let happen again. I knew as soon as I came back I hadn’t done enough training.
“But I feel a lot fitter now. The boys have been doing well and we are only a point behind Celtic. We were poor against them last week but they were on form and we need to forget it.”
Ex-Cowdenbeath kid Stewart will be in Derek McInnes’s squad for the game at Hamilton as the Dons look to continue their recovery from the 3-0 drubbing by Celtic this afternoon.
Although he dislikes the synthetic Superseal Stadium pitch, he’s determined not to let anything stand in the Reds’ way of keeping on the Hoops’ tails.
Stewart carries hope the table-toppers, who have drawn three Premiership games this term, will continue to drop points here and there.
He said: “I’m not the biggest fan of it but we just need to deal with it.
“We have already played there this season and won so we need to go into this game and get the three points, with no excuses about the pitch or anything. Hopefully, we can take the win into the last international break of the year.
“We just need to keep plugging away and win all our games. We then go into the Christmas period which they say is the toughest of the year. We need to come back and focus on that.
“We beat Ross County on Saturday and expected Celtic to defeat Kilmarnock. But when we heard they drew, we knew we are still right in there despite taking a sore one against them last week.
“We need to beat the other teams and see Celtic slip up and maybe be affected by European football, although they showed against Bayern Munich at Parkhead what a top team they are.”
Stewart – who failed to score in 26 appearances for Birmingham – admits he rarely thinks about his parent club since moving to Pittodrie but knows it’s unlikely Blues manager Steve Cotterill will want him back at the English Championship club.
The winger refuses to look too far ahead into the future as he focuses on the Dons’ immediate challenge of pushing Celtic all the way.
That’s why Stewart refuses to be drawn on the possibility current gaffer McInnes might be headed for Rangers in the coming days.
He said: “Do I expect it to happen? I have no idea. We just come in every day and get on with our job. That’s just what we need to do.
“If things happen then they happen. That’s football. If you’re doing well then obviously other teams see that and they sense an opportunity if they want to come and get you.
“But until something actually happens, you can’t do anything about it.”