I’M LUCKY DONS DIDN’T DUMP ME

Pittodrie utility man Ball was convinced his days were numbered after a bruising Hampden lesson

BELEAGUERED by blame in the glaring eyes of a semi-final audience, Hampden is such an unforgiving place to be. Dominic Ball was not anticipating a pardon. ‘I was sitting there with my dad and his friend after that Motherwell match saying: “That could be my last game for Aberdeen”,’ he recalls of April’s 3-0 Scottish Cup defeat.

Ball had hardly hoarded much credit in the bank to afford a rocky day at right-back, where he stopped playing to claim for handball and inadvertently gifted the opposition the lead.

A bit-part performer throughout an unremarkable seven months on loan from Rotherham, the Londoner had only started five games and completed one before the tie.

So he still finds it ‘strange’ that, by the end of that week, he arrived at the turning point of his Aberdeen career. The darkest hour did come before he was a Don for real.

Ball explains: ‘The next week, the manager throws me in for Kilmarnock

and, at that stage, I thought: “You know what, just go and enjoy it. Have a bit of fun. It can’t get much worse than Motherwell. I can’t feel any worse than I did last week. I’m not really a negative person anyway. If I’ve had a stinker, the positive is I can’t feel worse than now!”.

Five top-six games, one goal conceded and a second-place finish later, all of a sudden Derek McInnes was sold on the idea of bringing Ball back for a second spell at Pittodrie.

The 23-year-old played all but 18 minutes of the post-split series against the best teams in the country as Aberdeen landed the runners-up berth for the fourth successive season.

It’s 12 starts for Aberdeen this term and he has moved swiftly on to shake off that national stadium nightmare, with a late substitute appearance to help see off Rangers in the Betfred Cup last four.

So here is the former Tottenham starlet, who counts Rangers, Cambridge and Peterborough among his other loan stops, hoping to be drafted into defensive midfield for a big role against Celtic today.

And he’s a different man to the one fielded by McInnes as Shay Logan’s deputy when Curtis Main, Ryan Bowman and Co left Ball bruised by his worst experience in the spotlight.

‘From my education at Spurs and it being all about the 24-hour pro, I’d always been very intense,’ admits Ball. ‘Looking at the 30 lads in my youth team, I was probably around middle in ability and quality.

‘But I was the last one standing of that age at the club because I worked very hard and did whatever it took to just keep going.

‘To some Spurs lads it came naturally. Guys from all over the world. Or young boys like Harry Winks, who is a completely different player to me.

‘He wouldn’t have done as much extra as I did but I felt that had to be the way forward for me.

‘I’d give myself a list of things I had to do when I went to training and before I left. If I didn’t do everything — that’s gym, core, stretching, technique stuff after training —then I’d go home guilty.

‘Even when I came up here, I was doing that. That kind of intensity, I thought, would get me back in the Aberdeen team.

‘I wasn’t just going out to smash it, enjoy it and do what I’m good at. I was worrying too much. People in football say work on the psychology and mindset. I did. But took it too far.

‘It became a hindrance to me actually enjoying football.’

Winding himself up too much both in the gym and at home didn’t work. Pleading for greater opportunity from McInnes, there was no convincing case.

‘It took me a while to settle into a different culture, different style here last season and it was just a tough period,’ explains Ball.

‘I used to speak to the gaffer: “Give me a chance just to contribute”. He didn’t have the trust in me. He hadn’t seen anything. I hadn’t actually done it.

‘I’d arrived at Aberdeen six months without a game, down to Hearts, played 60 minutes and cramped up.

‘I might have thought I was but I wasn’t as ready as I could’ve been. Not sharp enough to get tight. Not quick enough on the ball.

‘Sometimes you only get one or two chances. If you don’t take them then, like I was, you’re put back for four months.’

The advice and answers didn’t arrive from any of Ball’s elite knowhow connected to his nurturing in the top-level academy game. It came from his upbringing closer to home.

He turned to Matt Ball, then o f Hendon FC and now of Biggleswade Town in semiprofessional Southern League Premier Division ranks. His older brother spoke much sense during the winter break. ‘He’d heard what I’d been like on the phone to him,’ says Ball. ‘I’d gone to Cambridge, Rangers, Rotherham and realised there weren’t many players who I felt were doing as much as me. ‘You start to realise, from coaches speaking to you, that maybe you’re doing too much. But I didn’t want to listen. ‘I was like: “No, I’m working the hardest. So I should be playing”. ‘Sometimes it isn’t that — it’s actually the quality of the work you are doing — the recovery — that counts.

‘My brother told me to stop worrying, to just go out and enjoy myself like I would have done when I first started playing football.

‘I’d forgotten what that was like. You can’t keep forcing yourself to do all these things like the gym twice a day.

‘Any time you do spend so much time thinking about things, you tend to come round to negative thoughts.

‘Thankfully, I’m finding that balance now. Working hard, yes, but enjoying your time, the journey. And enjoying your interests out of football.’

Those interests include playing guitar, writing a book about the fortunes of a group of footballplaying mates from childhood to the real world and navigating year five of a business studies degree.

Few of his youth game or academy pals have sampled pro football experiences such as helping Rangers to a Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic — the highlight so far of Ball’s career.

He was a Mark Warburton loan signing for that penalty shoot-out success in 2016.

Although he knew suspension would rule him out of facing Hibernian in the final, Ball admitted soon after that he may not savour a day as high as that again in his career.

He explains: ‘I said that because you don’t know. You never know. Then again, here I am with Aberdeen for a League Cup final two years later.

‘It would just be amazing to pick up a trophy for everyone around here, for the young squad we’ve got. For a lot of players, at this stage of their career it would be excellent. It’s about time.

‘I’ve always done better in the bigger games. For me, it’s been about improving the consistency to do it in all games. So I’m buzzing for a cup final and I’ve a big following of family and friends coming up.’

I thought to myself: ‘It can’t get any worse than that. Go and have fun’ To some of the Spurs boys it just came naturally. I felt I had to work harder but I probably took it too far