Jonny Hayes has become the first of the Aberdeen Eight to speak out about their disastrous night out in the city.
With two players testing positive and six more in self-isolation a listless 1-0 defeat to Steven Gerrard’s side last Saturday has become incidental.
As the events came out in jigsaw fashion there are still many missing parts to what went on in the city centre last week.
Hayes went to home after the match, watched a rerun of the match then decided to head out to meet up with team-mates to try and get over the result and performance.
These days most events are arranged through Whatsapp which would presumably have involved the full first team squad ranging from Craig Bryson to Bruce Anderson.
Surely some of the players that declined the offer knew that such an event would break the rules, if the night-out wasn’t mentioned in the WhatsApp group those involved must have knew that it was at least questionable. All on a night where they had badly let down expectant fans.
? | Jonny Hayes spoke to RedTV earlier today
Watch the full interview on RedTV ? https://t.co/LbvC3EqdFU
Or the AFC YouTube channel ?— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) August 8, 2020
Hayes told Reds TV:
It was a massive game for us and it was a let down for us. The players didn’t perform, it was a let down. I came home and watched the game again and thought, ‘I need to take my mind off it’. That’s me being genuine.
I know people will talk about how we lost to Rangers and it’s unacceptable. It was a human error at the end of the day, I’m not trying to defend players actions, sometimes you take your eye off the ball and that’s what we’ve done.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, we shouldn’t have gone for dinner, we shouldn’t have gone to a bar, it wasn’t a team night out or anything. People were home early, lads were driving etc, no drinking. It wasn’t what it was made out to be but still, it was a mistake and we should have known better. I’m not making excuses but with the build-up, losing to Rangers on the opening day of the season was an anti-climax for four, nearly five months of preparation since football went into lockdown with all the hard work behind the scenes.
Not just from the players, from everybody. To lose and not perform it was a huge let down for everyone.
I’ve been here before; I know I should know better. There’s some players who will learn as they go along, everyone makes mistakes but I think in terms of at the minute, we can’t really do much. We apologise, we’re going to miss football. We’ve got to make it up to not just Aberdeen fans but Scottish football in general.
Yesterday’s match at St Johnstone was postponed but the games with Hamilton and Celtic are still scheduled to go ahead.