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JONNY HAYES reckons his only chance of being in the driving seat at Euro 2016 is by taking a van of pals to support Niall McGinn and Northern Ireland.

The Aberdeen winger caught the eye of a nationwide audience on Sky Sports with a man-of-the-match performance in the 1-0 win over Hearts at Pittodrie.

Irish star Hayes, 28, insists Martin O’Neill, Roy Keane, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Mrs Brown’s Boys could all have been impressed with his display on Saturday and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.

The former Reading, Leicester and Inverness wideman has been capped at Under-21 level by the Republic but never for the senior side.

He doesn’t anticipate that situation changing any time soon, citing the focus of O’Neill and previous bosses on players starring in England – and his own lack of optimism.

Ireland were drawn on Saturday night against world No.1 Belgium, Italy and Sweden for the finals in France next summer .

However, Hayes will be supporting club mate McGinn and Michael O’Neill’s shock troops from the North against world champions Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

(Image: SNS Group)

He said: “When Ireland didn’t look as if they would qualify I planned a trip to France with a couple of pals to support Niall and I’ll probably still go as a fan.

“We’ll maybe hire a van – and no doubt I’ll be left with the driving. We’ll go for a few days and I’m still pledging my allegiance to Niall, only because I can get match tickets from him.

“It’s nice to think the Ireland manager might watch our games on TV but it’s not in my head – I forgot the game was even being shown on Sky. I’m only focused on my team and my own game.

“If something ever came about then obviously I’d be happy but I don’t think about it. Why not? Probably because I’m a pessimist.

“Look, if asked, you wouldn’t say no – you couldn’t. I’d get some amount of stick back home if I did.

“However, it’s different if you’re playing well every week in the Premier League.

“Previous management teams in Ireland didn’t watch the SPL at all, so maybe it has

something to do with that. If it happened, it would be a bonus.”

Aberdeen moved to within a point of leaders Celtic on Saturday afternoon before the Hoops beat St Johnstone yesterday.

Title talk around the Dons has faded in recent weeks after their blistering start to the season, which saw them win their opening eight Premiership fixtures in a row.

Hayes is making no claims to a title charge in the aftermath of their victory over third-placed Hearts but claimed his side are playing better now than in August and September.

Better still, he also insists they now have the physical smarts to go with their attractive playing style as they refused to be intimidated by the strength of the Jambos.

Hayes added: “Everything seemed to fall into place when we went on our run earlier in the season.

“There were games where we didn’t play well but still won with a few slices of luck along the way.

“We’ve actually played better in recent games than we did at the start of the season and we can only take confidence from that.

“Hearts are as physical a side as we’ve played. We were aware it could be a physical game against them and we had to try to match that and let a game of football break out.

“It didn’t materialise but we had some nice bits of play. Our big lads stood strong with the likes of Willo Flood and matched them.

“We tried to play the game as it should be in the first half but had to dig in more after the interval.

“We did both equally well and it’s good to show other sides to our game and that we’re not just two dimensional.”

Hayes drew the Hearts players into fouls and Jambos boss Robbie Neilson hauled off Miguel Pallardo after half-an-hour to save him from a red card following a scything tackle on the Dubliner.

He said: “It was a silly challenge, even a couple of the Hearts players agreed and I wasn’t surprised to see him taken off. It was a bit of head loss but we all go through that. I’ve always been told if you’re kicked up and down the park it’s a compliment.

“It’s frustrating at times as you would prefer to beat the man and put a cross in, rather than having to take a static free-kick against a big side.

“We were a little fortunate in the end to get the penalty but Adam Rooney tucked it away well. We’ll take that all day long. It really didn’t matter how the game went, so long as we won.”

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