IT is doubtful whether anyone associated with Aberdeen Football Club would want to be reminded about the events of November 27th last year at Hampden Park, let alone someone who was caught up in the thick of it.
In fact, Jonny Hayes wants to wipe the meek surrender to Celtic in the League Cup final from his memory bank so badly that he doesn’t even know where his runners-up medal is.
But one of the most disappointing days of his career is providing fuel for the fire that burns inside him to not only make amends for that desperately disappointing 3-0 defeat, but to end a 27-year wait for his own supporters to taste Scottish Cup glory, and to end Celtic’s dreams of a treble in the process.
If the winger, who punctuated a magnificent season to date with an admittedly fortuitous winner in Saturday’s semi-final win over Hibernian, can help Aberdeen to lift the coveted silverware in May, then he feels he would have earned a medal worth keeping a hold of.
“Obviously, there’s a big difference between having a winner’s medal and a runners-up medal – history doesn’t look back and remember runners-up,” Hayes said.
“We’ve got to first of all try to make sure of second place in the league and then when the final comes around we’ve got to give a better account of ourselves than we did in the League Cup.
“I’m not a big fan of runners-up medals. I’ve never held on to them, they don’t really interest me. There’s a big difference between first and second in terms of merit and for me, if you are not first you are last. We’ll take that into the cup final and try to go one better than the League Cup.
“I was actually thinking about the League Cup runners-up medal earlier – it went in a bag and I’ve not seen it since the final, so God knows where it is! As I say, I’m not really one for keeping them.”
Hayes enjoyed the afterglow of his late winner which finally shook off a gallant Hibs resistance at the weekend, but such is the fleeting nature of football, he knows that it’s a moment that will be forgotten if he isn’t hoisting the Scottish Cup above his head come the end of the season.
“Right now, it is obviously very relevant and very important but, come May 27, if we don’t give a good account of ourselves and give everything to try to win the game it won’t mean anything,” he said.
“It’s obviously nice to look at it on paper and see that we’ve won 3-2 and you’ve scored the winner at Hampden, but now it’s all about the weekend and St Johnstone as we look to kick on again in the league.”
When Aberdeen did taste triumph in the League Cup final of 2014, Hayes had to be substituted just six minutes into the game after picking up an injury. As disappointed as he was though, the winger says he would gladly repeat the experience if he was collecting that winner’s medal on May 27.
“I’d take that again – I’d go off in the first minute and win on penalties,” he said. “If you were to offer me that now I’d bite your hand off!
“The feeling of winning a trophy is something you can’t put a price on. It will be a very tough task to go on and lift it but if we do it will be a very special moment.
“Graeme Shinnie’s won it before and we’ve not heard the end of it, he talks about it constantly.
“Obviously if we get one it means him having two and we still wouldn’t hear the end of it, but it would be nice to go on and do it.”
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