Lewis: Dons are united

ABERDEEN captain Joe Lewis is viewing four games in 11 days as the perfect way for the Pittodrie club to move on from their Covid-19 scandal. The Dons had three matches postponed after eight of the squad were instructed to quarantine after a night out in the city following a home 1-0 defeat by Rangers on the opening day of the season. The players — Jonny Hayes, Craig Bryson, Scott McKenna, Bruce Anderson, Sam Cosgrove, Michael Devlin, Matty Kennedy and Dylan McGeouch — were all fined and face SFA disciplinary action later this month. Aberdeen finally return to football on Thursday night in a rearranged league match at St Johnstone before hosting Livingston on Sunday. The Granite City outfit then face a Europa League opening qualifier against Welsh side Barry Town or NSI of the Faroe Islands the following Thursday, before a trip to play Hibernian in the Premiership on August 30.

Goalkeeper Lewis can’t wait to get back playing, and talking about, football again. ‘There’s been lots of difficult conversations,’ he told Red TV. ‘You never want to deal with this. But the boys involved have made their public apology, they’ve apologised internally to the other players and to the staff. The club have dealt with it internally and that’s drawn a line under it. ‘Playing games is important now to put things behind us and move on. ‘We spent so long waiting for the football to come back then, as soon as it did, it was gone again. ‘So now we are back, let’s grab hold of the games that are coming, make the absolute most of them, pick up results and bring the attention back to what we are all about as a club and as players. It’s about the football now. The games are going to come thick and fast. We are very united as a group.’