LEWIS ENLIGHTENED BY NORTHERN DELIGHTS

Lewis is only too happy to put down roots in Aberdeen after making a flying start to life in Scottish football under Derek McInnes

HAVING meticulously constructed his Aberdeen team over three years, Derek McInnes arrived at the end of last season knowing there was one crucial piece of the jigsaw missing. If his team were to continue improving and push for honours, he knew the acquisition of a dependable goalkeeper was a necessity.

His experience midway through last season, when Jurgen Klopp unexpectedly terminated Welshman Danny Ward’s loan from Liverpool, taught him that the solution also needed to be permanent.

Joe Lewis ticked all the boxes. Having spent a restless season on loan from Cardiff to Fulham in the English Championship, the move north suited the 29-year-old just as much as it did his new club.

A former England Under-21 internationalist with a solid pedigree at club level, Lewis has lived up to his billing by playing every minute of a campaign in which the Dons are set to wrap up second place in the Premiership and have made it to two cup finals.

He’s impressed his fellow professionals too, making it into the PFA Scotland team of the year.

‘I knew I was at a stage in my career where I needed to get back on the pitch and play games,’ reflects Lewis on his arrival at a career crossroads. ‘I had been a No2 at Cardiff for a couple of years and then played a few games at Blackpool and then Fulham on loan.

‘I felt like I needed to go and be a No 1 somewhere. Because of the early start for the European qualifiers, Aberdeen came in early. It was one of the first offers I had but I didn’t hang around to see what else was out there. It appealed to me.

‘To play European football was new but also to be competing at the right end of the league — it’s a lot more enjoyable to be winning games. This has been a good place to come and work every day.’

Raised in Suffolk and signed as a youngster by Norwich City, Lewis admits he hadn’t previously paid a lot of attention to football north of the border. He certainly didn’t reckon on the quality of football being quite so high.

Aberdeen may not have the means to match the wage bills of even the lesser lights in England’s second tier yet Lewis reckons most sides in that division would struggle to contain McInnes’s quick and powerful team. ‘It’s no secret that Celtic have been outstanding this season, but the standard of some of the football we have played has been very good too,’ he continued. ‘We know we have the players in our dressing room to hurt anyone — going forward we really carry a threat. ‘If you took that down south you could say the same thing. Teams in the Championship would struggle to deal with our attacking play. ‘It’s hard to say where you would place Aberdeen, Celtic or Rangers in England but you can only judge it on what you see and, to me, it’s a high standard up here. ‘I wasn’t sure what to expect but even in training every day I feel like I’m bettering myself. I’m being pushed, which is good. It’s an exciting league. I know points-wise Celtic have run away with it but it’s very competitive throughout the rest of the division. ‘There are some top players up here. You can tell that by the fact lots of clubs in England are up scouting our games. They wouldn’t be doing that if there was no quality up here.’ While midfielders Kenny McLean and Ryan Jack have excelled, it’s winger Jonny Hayes who has secured a PFA Scotland Player of the Year nomination. Tonight he goes up against the triple Celtic nomination of Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele and Stuart Armstrong — and Lewis would love to see the vote split in favour of his team-mate.

‘Jonny is a match-winner who scores, sets them up and teams are genuinely scared of his pace and what he can do to them,’ says Lewis. ‘He deserves his nomination and I would love to see him get it.’

Although Lewis ascended to the heights of the English Premier League with Cardiff City, it was at his previous club Peterborough that he enjoyed the most productive spell of his own career.

At £400,000 a record buy for the Posh from Norwich in 2008, he even made it into a full England squad a year later, a promotion that propelled himself into some stellar company under the tutelage of Fabio Capello.

‘It was two friendlies, the USA at home and Trinidad away at the end of the season in 2008,’ he recalls. ‘I trained with some unbelievable players — some of the best players England have had.

‘Rooney, Beckham,

Gerrard, Lampard, even the defenders Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole. Manchester United had just played Chelsea in the Champions League Final and those lads joined a bit later.

‘Chris Kirkland had been in the senior squad but got injured. It was the end of the season and I had been away with the Under-21s and that's the reason I was called up — I certainly wasn’t the third best go baile in the country at the time!

‘It’s nearly 10 years ago now but it's something I’m proud of, for sure.'

Lewis has found his season elongated in an entirely different way since committing to Aberdeen

The club’s presence in the European preliminaries meant he had shorter summer break than normal and the same will apply this year as McInnes’ men prepare for a Scottish Cup Final on May 27 before another tilt at making it to the Europa League group stage resumes in July ‘You get a bit longer in England especially if you are not in the play-offs, but we have the winter break and the international breaks

up here, so you are well