Peter Pawlett

The club confirmed yesterday that midfielder Peter Pawlett has signed a pre-contract agreement with English League One side MK Dons. Peter will therefore head south at the end of the season to start a new career with the other Dons.

The Dons midfielder sat down and spoke to www.afc.co.uk and explained the lure of playing in the country of his birth was a big factor when making the decision on his future:

“I have always wanted to play there. I wanted to give it a go. So this was an opportunity to go down there. I have been down and seen the facilities. The potential is massive at MK Dons and they have a good manager so I feel it is a great move for me at this stage of my career.

“They have a really good set up. They have a new 30,000 stadium and they have had the plans confirmed for a new training ground which will be ready for pre-season in 2018/19. I have seen the plans and the facility looks fantastic. They have not had the greatest season but you can just see and feel the potential within the club.

“It was an opportunity that I felt that I had to take. I am 26 so I am at a good age to go down to England.

“It was a decision that I made myself, with the support of my family.

“It was such a hard decision. I have been doing a lot of thinking and weighing it all up. Your family is the most important thing and I have to look after them. They were also very supportive and said they would support whatever decision made me happy.

“I have been here since I was 6, 7 years of age. It is going to be so strange for me going to another club. When I leave Pittodrie for the last time I am sure there will be a few tears.

“I have played over two hundred games now. I have been here through the good and the bad times! The up and downs. I hope people think that I have been a good servant.

“The news broke yesterday before everything was confirmed. Everything on social media from the fans since then has been very positive towards me. I really really appreciate that. They could easily have taken a different view when they heard I was leaving. The fans have always been brilliant with me. I will always have a special relationship with them. I am and always will be an Aberdeen fan myself.

“I will leave with a lot of happy memories.

“The 2014 League Cup final was a highlight. Even although I never played in the final! It is unbelievable that everyone associates me with that game. It was an amazing day and one I will never forget but at the time I was a bit embarrassed when I was getting hoisted in the air by my teammates during the lap of honour after sitting in the stand during the game! I think my song at the end was maybe the highlight for some people as it was not the greatest of games! And that is what they remember. It was a very odd day but it was a great day. One I will never forget. That season I really enjoyed my football. I was performing really well and I played in every game up to the final. The semi-final was obviously very special for me.

“I have heard a lot of good things about Robbie Neilson. Neil Alexander worked with him and was impressed with how hard he works. His plans for the team and for me sounded good. I liked what he had to say.

“I don’t know any of the players although I did meet a few of them yesterday. My first day will be a bit strange. It will be like my first day at school!

“But all that is for the future. There is still so much to play for this season. I hope I can be a part of it because I will still give my all for the club. We have a chance to finish in second spot and the chance to get to a Scottish Cup final. What a way that would be to finish my time at Aberdeen.

“The squad has done a lot of hard work to get us into this position as we head into the final part of the season. It has been a long one for us, starting way back in June, we then had a lot of games to play in December and again in February, we did a lot of work during those winter months to leave us in a good place. Finishing second would been a big thing for us. At this stage of the season you don’t want to be playing catch up so it is good we have managed to get our noses in front. We just have to focus on what is ahead of us, starting the game against Motherwell on Sunday.

“I enjoyed the game on Sunday against Partick. Although it was very scrappy I enjoyed the physical side of it and getting stuck in. I enjoyed being part of a team that worked hard for each and as a player you get a lot of satisfaction with those types of wins. And getting on the pitch from the start was good for me. Conditions make it difficult for me to carry the ball 30, 40 yards so you have to adapt your game and we battled really well to get over the line.

“Motherwell will come up on Saturday extra determined to do well after what happened last time. They will also come up in a positive frame of mind after a good win at Kilmarnock last week and they have Scott McDonald back in the side. He will make a difference as I think he is a good player. It will be a tough. No two games are the same and every game is a different challenge.

“But we are flying at the minute. Apart from the Hamilton result we have done very well now over a three-month period. Even that Hamilton game we created so many chances but we could just not finish. It was a bad result but it was not as if we had a nightmare.

“There is a lot to look forward to between now and the end of the season.”

“There is a lot to look forward to between now and the end of the season.”