Jonny Hayes' emotional Aberdeen FC goodbye almost too much for Dante Polvara as American opens up on Livi sitter
Polvara admits he nearly cried as Hayes said an emotional farewell to Pittodrie as the Dons thumped Livingston.
Dante Polvara admitted he was almost in tears as an emotional Jonny Hayes said his Pittodrie playing farewell.
The legendary Irishman was given the captain’s armband as he came on as a late sub and was then given a guard of honour from the Aberdeen players as he left the pitch. Hayes, who had two playing spells at Aberdeen, with a stint at Celtic sandwiched in between, is set to hang up his boots and embark on his coaching career full-time.
The Irishman has options of roles with Celtic, Swansea City and the Dons. Polvara admitted: "Obviously for Jonny and what he's done for me personally it's sad and I nearly started crying when we gave him the guard of honour. I was like "come on man, you're going to make me tear up" as we've been through a lot together. Cause with him going and with the others' contract situation I'll be one of the longest serving players still here.
"That's crazy to think about but I guess I've stuck around somehow but that's the reality of football. I'll be excited for them whatever is next and especially for them you want to end well. You don't want to go away with that bitter feeling.”
The likes of Connor Barron, Kelle Roos and Junior Hoilett are all out of contract while Stefan Gartenmann’s loan spell from Midtjylland is set to expire. Whatever happens the Dons squad will want to have one final dance and finish off the season with five straight wins when they head to relegation-threatened Ross County on Sunday.
New manager Jimmy Thelin will take over from Peter Leven in the summer. Polvara is already staking his claim that he is now ready to become a regular first-team pick. He has been a regular in the bottom six fixtures and has netted twice in as many games.
The 23-year-old was relieved to net against Livingston after missing a first half sitter and then having to issue an apology to his teammates. He stated: “I will think about that miss as maybe the game would have worked out differently as maybe I would have scored a few more.
"But I'm just happy it worked out the way it did in the end as there have been times when something like that affected my game. Now I was able to use that as motivation and I was really happy to be in the right position to finally score.
"I apologised to the boys at half-time for what had happened but a few of them did as well. We missed a number of chances in that first half but obviously my one was the worst but we got our goals at the end.”
Captain Graeme Shinnie also netted against Livingston and Polvara was pleased for him, as he returned from his recent suspension. The midfielder claimed: "It does give me confidence as I know the team was playing well and that's a big decision for the manager.
"It's tough as Shinnie is one of my best mates and I was so happy he scored as well against Livingston. He's got stick from people this season when he hasn't deserved it as they don't realise how important he is behind the scenes. He does so much for us so I was buzzing when he scored as it's good to see him get what he deserves.”
All the pressure will be on County going into the final game but Polvara is adamant that the Dons will want the win just as much. "They'll obviously be pushing for the result to secure their survival which is probably good.” he warned.
"You would rather have that than a game that means nothing to end the season. We will definitely want to go there and win to end with five in the row and they will be fighting to stay in the league.
“They have been tough to play against for the entire time I've been here and I would expect nothing less on Sunday."