Stewart is coming on strong at the right moment
THE timespan would offer ample opportunity for his parent club Birmingham City to pack in the hiring then firing of another couple of managers in their latest chaotic season. So a swift, six-week challenge for Greg Stewart to turn his underwhelming campaign around and finish up hero of a superb Aberdeen season is comfortably within the loan man’s compass.
In fact, it is one he has specifically mapped out with the help, encouragement and no small amount of patience from Pittodrie boss Derek McInnes.
Both manager and player acknowledge the uphill struggle for Stewart’s efforts to make a sustained impact.
The wide man admitted drinking too much during three summer holidays to forget a miserable first year with Birmingham was the root of his early problems.
Overindulging during this year’s close season would be forgiven if a contribution from Stewart steers Aberdeen to second place in the league and Scottish Cup glory.
The signs are promising. An infrequent starter throughout the campaign, Stewart scored his first Pittodrie goals for the club against St Johnstone and followed up by impressing against Motherwell.
That Fir Park win against a team that had piled problems on Aberdeen in the first half of the season was a positive marker for Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
Stewart is, finally, fully integrated and trusted by McInnes, who must unearth answers for the absence of suspended stars Graeme Shinnie, Kenny McLean and Shay Logan.
Those setbacks means the improving Stewart is a sure starter for Hampden and he is determined to book his club a return trip for the final on Saturday, May 19.
‘When I knew I was coming to Aberdeen I was really looking forward to it but this has just been one of those seasons — being in and out the team has been frustrating personally,’ said Stewart.
‘I have until the end of the season to turn things around. It is really important for me to have a strong finish to the season.
‘There is a big squad here with a lot of good players so, when you get your chance, you need to take it. I probably didn’t take my chance as well as I wanted to.
‘But I just want to forget about that. And it can be forgotten, you can be a hero on the back of scoring a big goal in a semi-final. It’s one of those games, a one-off and you never know what can happen.
‘And I feel I’m doing well now. I just want to keep pushing on and finish strong.
‘When you come to Aberdeen, cup finals are one of the things you want to come for. I watched them last year and they were really unlucky.
‘We want to try and win it this time and, with the squad we have got, we feel that we can go and do that.’
Next weekend presents Stewart with the chance to make his first ever appearance at the national stadium at the age of 28.
His four seasons with Cowdenbeath were spent in leagues above Queen’s Park, while the deepest his Dundee team managed to go in the tournament was the 2016 quarter-finals.
‘As a young boy I so much wanted to play at the national stadium, so I will be like a little kid again,’ he said.
‘From a fan’s perspective, if it is not going to be full then it doesn’t look great sometimes and some people prefer if semi-finals are played at Easter Road or Tynecastle.
‘But, as a player, you always want to be playing at the national stadium — and I’ve not done it yet.
‘Other boys maybe will think differently because they’ve played there but, for me, it is a personal achievement to reach a Hampden semi-final and play there.
‘It is the business end of the season, so you are going to be expecting to be playing a good side — and that’s exactly what Motherwell are.
‘They had already beaten us twice during the season so we felt we had a point to prove the other night. But that means nothing at Hampden, this is a different hurdle to overcome.’
Stewart and his team-mates are appreciating the stability brought to the Aberdeen set-up by McInnes since his appointment just over five years ago. The manager who signed Stewart for £500,000 at Birmingham, Gary Rowett, was one of the most inexplicable sackings in English league history midway through last season. Gianfranco Zola then Harry Redknapp followed Rowett into the hotseat during a shambolic flirtation with relegation, escaping by just two points. City continue to pay for the Rowett debacle as Redknapp was dismissed in September, Steve Cotterill lasted five months and Garry Monk is currently trying to lift the Blues clear of trouble. Stewart, with a year left on his St Andrews contract, has been content to keep his distance from the disarray in order to learn what might be required to have staying power for Aberdeen’s season. McInnes said: ‘People always remember how you finish a season more than how you start one. Greg could be a case in point — and so could we.
‘Hopefully we can have a strong end to the campaign and, if Greg is at the heart of that, absolutely brilliant.
‘I’d wanted to work with Greg for a long time and tried a couple of times to sign him until we got him on loan.
‘In Greg’s defence, he came — like a lot of our signings — from somewhere he’d not played a lot of football for a while.
‘I also saw it in Stevie May and Gary Mackay-Steven. Greg was one who had to make that adjustment from expecting to play week in week out at Dundee to not playing.
‘You can understand the problem. But we’re obviously at a club where we don’t really have time to wait because we have to keep winning games. He’s certainly been bright and played his part lately.
‘For all that has happened before — and I keep telling the players it doesn’t matter what’s happened before — it’s what happens now and what they deliver now that matters.’