Plumber Shay hopes Dons’ dreams won’t go down the drain
Shay Logan is convinced it will be seventh- time lucky for Aberdeen in Europa League qualifying, despite facing the toughest test since Derek Mcinnes took charge.
The Dons defender is hoping to make his 32nd appearance in the competition when they face Sporting Lisbon in Portugal’s capital on Thursday.
One certainty is that seven of the opposition’s players, as well as their head coach, Ruben Amorim, and two of his staff, won’t be at the Estádio José Alvalade.
They are in isolation after testing positive for Covid- 19, which forced the postponement of last night’s opening league game at home to Gil Vicente.
Sporting staff now face testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the results won’t be known until the day of the game.
Only then will UEFA and local authorities be able to decide whether or not the game goes ahead.
If it does, the Portuguese side will be severely depleted.
Not that Logan reckons that makes Aberdeen’s task any easier at a venue where only Barcelona, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal have won in recent times.
After all, Mcinnes has seen his side fail to progress beyond this third qualifying round in the past six seasons.
However, Logan is certain Aberdeen now have the experience needed to pull off a major shock, despite facing their hardest opponents during his time at the club.
Logan said:“I think winning would be the club’s biggest achievement in Europe for a long time.
“But you’ve got to beat the best to be up there, so that’s what we aim to do.
“This is an even bigger test than when we played Real Sociedad and took Burnley to extra time.
“It’s the toughest game we have had in the Europa League so far.
“Sporting Lisbon are a Champions League club, and you see them in there most seasons.
“All you can do is try to perform on the day and, hopefully, the fact it’s a 90- minute game works in our favour.”
“It would have been nicer to play them in a full stadium with our fans over there, but it is what it is.”
A home tie against LASK of Austria or Slovakia’s Dunajska Streda for a place in the group stage is the prize for pulling off a major upset.
First, though, the Dons will want to extend their winning streak to sevenstraight against Motherwell at Pittodrie this afternoon.
Logan will hope to be involved after coming off the bench during the midweek win over Viking in Stavanger.
He certainly needs to rack up the appearances to extend his contract at Pittodrie beyond next summer.
The 32-year-old can no longer count on being a regular for the first time since signing for Mcinnes back in January, 2014.
Logan has alreadymade long-termplans for his future by starting up a plumbing business with his mate, Stuartwilson.
However, he’s in no hurry to flush away his chances of a new deal with the Dons as his playing career isn’t going down the drain just yet.
He said: “Some people might wonder what’s going on with the plumbing, but football is my No. 1 priority.
“I’ve got a partner who looks after the business side of it, and I’m there on days off. But, right now, football comes first ahead of other commitments.
“I don’t know how long I’ve got to go on playing, but I definitely feel that I’ve three or four years left in the game.
“It’s the last year of my contract and I’ve got to play a certain amount of games to get another, so we’ll see how that goes.
“But you always have to plan for life after football because we don’t earn enough money from the game to just be able to retire when you stop.
“At the end of the day, when football’s finished, it’s not going to pay my mortgage or for my kids future.”