CRYSTAL CLEAR
Hayes believes chairman’s straight talking will lift Dons
DAVE CORMACK has spoken. Now Jonny Hayes believes every member of the Aberdeen dressing room must respond.
The 34-year-old Irishman warmly welcomed chairman Cormack’s strong backing for manager Stephen Glass during an impassioned radio interview earlier this week. It provided a sense of reassurance amid the Dons’ current slump.
Going ten games without a win — including five straight defeats — is the club’s worst run since 2010.
After last weekend’s 2-1 loss at Dundee, a section of fans vented their dismay by chanting for Glass to go.
Cormack, however, was quick to publicly rule out any managerial change. He stressed patience would be shown as the manager seeks to turn his positive ideas into results.
With certainty in place for the immediate future, Hayes is now targeting a long-awaited turning point towards better times when Hibernian visit Pittodrie today.
‘At the end of the day, it’s about continuity, and the manager and his staff work very hard,’ said the former Celtic man, when asked about Cormack’s words.
‘I feel that managers should be given a certain amount of time, regardless of results. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we’re working hard and we’re not that far away from clicking. I don’t see any reason for change.
‘I think every player in there wants to work with the manager, Allan (Russell), Henry (Apaloo)
and Scott (Brown). It is an enjoyable environment to work in, a fantastic football club. The only thing that’s affecting it is results. ‘There’s a bit of clarity now after rumours online and stuff like that. But for us, we know going into this weekend that we’ll work on the shape and on tactics for the foreseeable future.
‘As a player, it lets you know that you have a bit of time to turn this around. There’s got to be an onus on the group as a whole, not just the manager, to take responsibility for turning these negative results into positive results.’
Hayes would surely accept the promise of a change in outcomes has been played like a broken record by Aberdeen players in recent weeks. But he argues the shape of their season could yet change quickly.
‘We didn’t play well at Dundee on Saturday,’ he admitted, ‘but in training I see players trying things and I think we look better than we did. I’ve seen the quality in the group and I think there is more than enough there to turn this around.
‘There’s a quote I remember reading a few years ago: “As a manager and as a football club, you’re only ever three games away from a crisis”.
‘You’ve got to take that with a pinch of salt. We’re three wins away from Dundee United, who are in third place. I’m not necessarily saying we’ll turn it around in three games but when you look at it that way, the league is quite tight this year.
‘Everybody is taking points off each other and that will continue. It’s up to us now to take as many points as we can off teams above us and try to catch them.’
The fixture list doesn’t make a revival any easier. After the visit of Hibs, Aberdeen face a trip to Ibrox and a home game with highflying Hearts.
Despite the woes of the past couple of months, Hayes views it as a challenge to be approached with real enthusiasm.
‘There is pressure on players to perform and get results,’ he added. ‘But there are far bigger pressures in the outside world.
‘There are people struggling all over the country but football is an enjoyable pressure. I enjoy playing in high-pressure games and at the moment, with us not being up to standard, every game is high pressure.
‘I’m one of the more experienced guys, so it is up to me to try to tell some of the other boys that this should be an enjoyable pressure.
‘A sense of perspective is something I have learned over time. I go back to when we lost 3-0 to Hamilton seven years ago.
‘You go home and want to sit in a darkened room. But I’d just had a little boy at the time and that does put things into perspective. It gave me that little bit of freedom to just focus on football and not worry about anything else.
‘I think playing football is the best job in the world and you try to get that through to the younger boys.
‘It is a different culture now with everybody on social media. But if they can stay away from that, they will realise they are the only ones who can affect what happens on a matchday.’