DEREK McINNES didn't dare believe he would be be able to name Jonny Hayes on the Aberdeen team-sheet when Partick Thistle pitch-up at Pittodrie today.
The manager, like many of the supporters, feared last Friday night’s win over Dundee might be the winger’s finale in a red shirt.
Cardiff City had been hovering for two weeks hoping to land the Republic of Ireland player, latterly with a £600,000 bid and the smart money was on them succeeding.
Now, instead of being without one of his stars, McInnes is hoping Hayes will agree a new deal to keep him at the club beyond next summer when his contract expires, just as Graeme Shinnie did last week.
“I'm hopeful that more will follow Graeme Shinnie's lead by committing to longer,” he said. "I think it's a huge boost for us that we've managed to get Jonny to stay with us.
“When I wrote the team sheet out for the game against Dundee, like a lot of Aberdeen supporters I was thinking ‘is this the last time that Jonny's going to be with you?’ I did think it was a real possibility.
"We should be grateful that the supporters are going to see Jonny Hayes running out again against Partick Thistle and doing his business for us.
“I think it's vital that we all take a minute to realise that and the importance of keeping our good players; the Shinnies, the Hayes. It is important to us and hopefully supporters show that appreciation, certainly in Jonny's case."
McInnes revealed negotiations with Hayes have been on-going as they bid to keep him, even though his current deal takes him to the summer of next year.
He said: “We’ve been in talks with Jonny and others for the last wee while but I wouldn't say it's any closer to being resolved.
“It's certainly nothing we're going to announce today, tomorrow or whenever. I think on the back of Jonny staying it's maybe been put into the spotlight a wee bit more.
“I'm hoping we can get some good news over the next few weeks.”
Partick Thistle supporters may not have been too pleased with the tactics adopted by St Johnstone in midweek as they closed out a 1-0 victory at Firhill, and it certainly wasn’t pretty to watch.
But Thistle midfielder Sean Welsh reckons that it is about time his side took a leaf out of St Johnstone’s book and ditched their nice guy image.
For all the Firhill side are admired for their approach to the game, Welsh believes that they have to take on board some of the lessons handed out to them by Tommy Wright’s men.
“I think sometimes we’re too nice,” Welsh said. “We need to try and see games out and be streetwise like they are.
“You saw it on Wednesday night when they were one up with five minutes left and keeping it in the corner.
“They’re getting fouls and they end up getting one of our players sent off just by being clever, that’s what they are good at.
“You’ve got to give St Johnstone massive credit. We’ve got to learn from them. They are well-organised and well regimented at the back, and they’ve got some flair players to work off that.
“It can be ugly to play against them at times, but they get results. It suited them to sit in and there wasn’t much play really, it was a bit of a mess.
“It’s frustrating but we’ve been on a good run so we just need to pick ourselves up and go again.”
The next challenge facing Thistle as they try to get back on track is a suitably daunting one, with a trip to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie this afternoon.
Welsh is taking confidence from some tight recent matches between the sides, particularly the narrow defeat there in September where Thistle ran the hosts close despite his own late dismissal.
“It’s a hard place to go and they’ve got their tails up at the moment,” he said. "A few of their players are really kicking into form after the break, so it’s going to be a hard task.
“We’ll be ready for it though. We always give Aberdeen a hard game and we’ve been unlucky to lose the games against them this season. We’ll need to make sure we’re at it from the first minute, and I’ll not be talking back to the ref this time!”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here