Having racked up the 500th senior game of his career as the Dons played St Johnstone at the end of last season, if he gets on the pitch at McDiarmid Park on Saturday, it will be game number 300 in a Dons shirt for Jonny Hayes.

Reaching 300 games would make him only the 30th Aberdeen man to do so, putting him level in 28th place on the list with Ally Shewan and Joe Harper – pretty decent company.

Fitness and form permitting, it’s not impossible that by season’s end, he might also have reeled in John Hume, Billy Little, Neil Simpson and John McMaster too, putting him in very rarefied territory on the appearances list. These are things that the 35 year old Jonny doesn’t take for granted as the clock ticks ever onward.

Jonny spoke to Mal Panton for Red Matchday Magazine recently.

“I think this one was my 20th pre-season and to be honest, I’m probably more enthusiastic than ever because I know there won’t be many more left to come! I’m glad that’s behind us, though it was obviously different this year with the League Cup games, so it was nice to play games as a part of the process. But I’ve got a better understanding now of how important it all is and how committed you need to be in this game.

“For the first few years of my career, I didn’t think I’d make 100 games!

“I was a slow starter and, to be honest, I wasn’t as determined back then as I am now. This is one bit of advice I pass on to the youngsters nowadays, to really make the most of the opportunity and to have no regrets.

“Looking back to my early days, I’d moved to Reading, I was at a decent club with a decent academy system, and because of that I probably thought I was just going to be a footballer automatically. Looking back now, I wish I’d applied myself better as a 16, 17 year old, just in terms of training every day as if it was my last and wanting to be the best player in training every time we went out there.

“I thought it was good enough just to get through training, I’d do a year in academy then you just go and train with the first team and then after that, you become a first team player. It doesn’t really work out that way! It took me till I was 19, 20 to start realising that if I didn’t apply myself better on a daily basis, than I wouldn’t be a professional for long.

“The wake up call came when I was at Reading. Nicky Hammond was the director of football, and he came and spoke to me, not long into my final year. Nicky sat me down and basically said, “What are you doing with your career?” It felt like he was more disappointed that it hadn’t worked out, because I’d had a choice of a lot of big clubs to go to when I was moving from Ireland. I chose Reading because the system that was in place, I enjoyed being there, they thought I would break into the first thing and looking back, I should have.

“But that conversation sticks with me to this day and I try to pass bits of it on to the young lads all the time. It really hit home and I walked away thinking, “I’m not going to be a footballer.” I was thinking about packing my bags and going home because what he said had really hit me. I didn’t change overnight, and I wish I had, but I’ll always remember that conversation. I’ll always be grateful that he cared enough to spend 25 minutes to come out onto the training pitch and talk with me. I’m sure being director of football at the time he could have just let it slide, that he could have just seen me as another kid who didn’t make the grade, but he didn’t.

“I came over to England just before I turned 16, I was training with the first team at Reading after about two weeks, in and out under Alan Pardew. Then he left, Steve Coppell came in, I still trained a lot with the first team, or with Brendan Rodgers who was in charge of the U19s at the time. I played every single game pretty much for the 19s, even though most lads were two or three years older than me, but I didn’t really register the advice I was getting.

“I wouldn’t say I was a negative kind of person, but I wasn’t as open minded as I am now. Eamon Dolan came in to take the 19s when Brendan became academy director and when he changed things a bit, I didn’t like it. The goal was still the same, but I just didn’t get why things had changed. I thought football owed me a career, because I’d moved away from my family, and football isn’t like that.

“I had a loan spell at MK Dons and although I don’t think I started a game in the second half of the season, I loved it there, I loved playing for Martin Allen. My contract was running out at Reading and I could have gone and stayed at MK Dons and I probably wish I had looking back. But Martin called me and told me not to sign for anybody because he was going to Leicester City and he wanted me there.

“That sounded great, Leicester was a bigger club, I thought everything was working out for me. Pre-season was good, then I picked up a little thigh injury on the Thursday before the first game, but I was on a good bonus to play on the Saturday, so I kept quiet. I remember buying a new TV on the Friday, thinking the bonus would pay for it. So I played on the Saturday, got injured, ruptured my thigh, and was out for four months.

“The manager changed twice during that period, by the time I got back it was Ian Holloway who was in charge, we were in a relegation fight in the Championship, and he realised that wasn’t the best scenario for a 19 year old learning the game. I went out on loan to Northampton for the second half of the season, but I really didn’t know what was happening. I went back to Leicester, I didn’t have a squad number for the following season, and then I got a call from Terry Butcher asking did I want to go to Inverness? Genuinely, I didn’t even know what league they were in! But I wasn’t playing at Leicester, and I needed to play.

“In fact, I had an opportunity in America as well at the same time, but my dad said that if I went there and it didn’t work out, that would be it, finished, nobody back here would take me on if I failed again out there. He was right, I had to do well at the next place I went to and thankfully, Terry took a massive chance on me and I’ve been happy in Scotland ever since.”

If Jonny didn’t necessarily make the most of those early opportunities, as the cliché goes, every cloud has a silver lining. He found it at this end of his career.

“I was 22 before I was playing regularly and that’s probably why I’m still going at 35, because I didn’t have that volume of games early on. I think of the lads who I grew up with in the Ireland teams when I was 17, 18, 19, and I can’t think of many of them who are still playing. Even though players look after themselves so much better now than 15, 20 years ago, a lot of players still drop out of the game at 31, 32. I’ve had my injuries along the way like anybody else, but I think maybe I’m still going because I didn’t have that wear and tear as a kid.

“Sports science is always developing too. We were having a conversation about hamstring injuries the other day, about exposure to high speed running and how one year this is what you do to avoid injury and in two years time, it might be different. I think you have to be able to adapt in terms of taking in what is the most relevant information at the time. Over the course of time, different managers have different beliefs in terms of what’s right and wrong for players to stay fit. As a player, you try to take in as much information as you can to help prolong or develop your own career.”

Some 500 games over 15 years is no mean feat, especially because of what it says about Jonny’s adaptability in the face of an evolving game. So how has the game changed in that time?

“We had an era where people were trying to reinvent the wheel, they were overcomplicating things, especially with younger teams. I think good coaching is about putting your own spin on it. Over the years, I think more and more teams have set up to stop the better teams from playing. I think the game’s got more defensive because of the money involved. Teams want to stay in leagues, they know they can’t compete right at the top, so they do their best to survive. When you look at the English Premier League highlights 20 years ago, teams were playing 4-4-2 and it was end to end football all the time. Now if you get one end to end game in ten, you’re happy. That’s a big change.”

Jonny has begun putting a toe in the water on the other side of the touchline, doing some coaching with the younger age groups in the academy. He’s bringing plenty of hard earned experience to bear on the job too.

“We’ve got to find the balance at the club where you want to develop the younger ones, especially in terms of making them adaptable for whatever future manager they’ll play for, but at the same time installing that winning mentality. Thankfully, I’m still learning! It’s not my job. It’s down to Messers Robson, Duff, Anderson and the other ones!

“I think we’ve got a good mix here, where the academy especially is adaptable. We’ve seen three different types of managers with the first team over the last two years, and you have to provide the manager with what they want. But for players, that also applies if they go somewhere else, so they have to really understand the game. That’s a big part of the job of coaching at that level, to show them different ways of playing the game and what it needs.

“Beyond that, passing on your knowledge is just part of being a good person. I think if I’d made a mistake 20 years ago, and someone corrected me on it, why wouldn’t I want that? I definitely don’t want people, especially young guys, having to make the same mistakes I did, so if I see someone maybe not making the right run, or taking control of the ball in the wrong way, I let them know.

“Although we’re a family club, sometimes no matter what level you’re at, it’s daunting for young players to come into the first team squad for a prolonged period of time. They want to learn, they’re like sponges, and I think it’s a responsibility for the older players that to help them through it.

“There’s some days in training where a young player might be having a bad day. I’ve been there, I’ve had a senior player hammering me about the things I was doing wrong. I’d never do that. I’d never want a youngster feeling uncomfortable in that first team environment. So it might be a case of putting your arm around them and if they’re having a bad day, tell them they’re doing ok, but what about doing this? I know what I’d appreciate, and I certainly try to pass that on to others. At the end of the day, every single person that walks in this building, is working towards the goal of making Aberdeen better, we all have a responsibility for that.”

As game 300 approaches for Aberdeen, what are the ones that are the most memorable from the first 299?

“Motherwell away, the 2-0 game in the quarter-final of the League Cup in 2014 is a game that always stands out for me. Joe Shaughnessy got sent off early on and we punished him afterwards by making him buy us all a fish supper! Motherwell had a good team, they played some really expansive football, but we hung in there, and Andy Considine scored from a set play late on. Then in the last minute, we had a really quick breakaway and I scored to finish it off. That gave me a lot of confidence in myself and the team. ‘Oh, we can do that. We’re a fit team, there’s no reason why we can’t do that every week.’ I look back on that as one of the fonder memories I have in football.

“The St Johnstone semi-final was another one of the best team performances I’ve been involved in. The same with when we beat Celtic in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup that year. Russell equalised for us and Peter scored the winner. Team performances stand out for me more than anything as an individual, because they matter to everybody not just the individual.

“When James Maddison famously scored the free-kick against Rangers in the last minute, we weren’t at our best that day but we found a way to win. Me and Adam played up front, which was unusual, just because Derek recognised something in their team to exploit. Funnily enough the goal I scored at the start of the second half, was exactly what we’d worked on that week in training. Now, as a young coach, I appreciate it when you get something that comes off, so I’m sure that would have been pretty special for Derek and Tony, that something that we worked on came off in a big game.

“Groningen away was another one. I remember we hung in a bit, they missed a great chance early on, but we stuck with it. That’s how it is in Europe, especially away, you hang in there and then you start to implement your game and to be fair, we could have finished with four or five goals.

“Away in Rijeka, we got a real doing for 20 minutes! Without that water break, I don’t know what would have happened. I’ve still got pictures of how red we were! Their right winger, he did not stop running and he kept running between me and Andy and we just couldn’t cope. Danny Ward was frightening that night, and then from there, we went on and won the game. That was a special night.”

And who’s to say there won’t be a few more special days left for Jonny Hayes this season?

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