Falkirk goalkeeper Danny Rogers admits he would prefer to play his part in the Bairns’ promotion push rather than sit on the Aberdeen bench.
The possibility of the Republic of Ireland Under-21 cap being recalled to the Dons came up on Sunday night when Liverpool surprised the Pittodrie club by taking Danny Ward back from his temporary move.
The first Rogers, who was yesterday named SPFL Championship player of the month for December while manager Peter Houston picked up the manager award, heard of it was when Aberdeen fans started sending him messages with train times back to the Granite City.
With Dons boss Derek McInnes expected to look for a new number one, the 21-year-old admits his preference would be to stay with Peter Houston’s side rather than watch on from the sidelines at his parent club.
Rogers, who only signed a new six month loan extension last week, said: “I just want to play games to be honest, I’m doing well here and I want to see the season out.
“If I were to go back to Aberdeen and play it’s different kettle of fish.
“But we’re in a great position here, the team is doing really well and we’re playing really well.
“Aberdeen is a massive club and to go and not play games there would be gutting to be honest.
“We’ve got such a big month, we’ve got Hibs, Livingston and Rangers, so it’s massive.
“It will more than likely decide whether we’re going to be in the promotion race as well.
“If we can pick up points we’d be right in it.”
Rogers admits he was bombarded with messages as soon as news broke that Welsh internationalist Ward has been recalled by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
The Irishman, who has made 24 appearances for Falkirk so far this season, added: “I was getting a couple of texts on my phone and then Twitter blew up.
“Aberdeen fans were sending me train times back to Aberdeen and Falkirk fans were saying, ‘He’s going nowhere!’
“It was a bit back and forth.”
With Rogers having signed fresh terms with the Championship, Houston could hold on to the shot-stopper if he wanted to but the experienced coach admits he will abide by what Aberdeen want.
Houston, who is planning to phone McInnes to clarify the situation with Rogers and is actually in the process of trying to sign a back-up keeper, said: “The situation quite clearly is that if we don’t want to send Danny back then we don’t need to. We have a legal agreement and papers lodged.
“But I’ve got a great relationship with Derek and I don’t want to sour that.
“I don’t think you get anywhere with playing hardball. There might be a time when I want to go back to Derek McInnes and get one of his outfield players.
“I could be the rotten guy here but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.
“I don’t want to fall out with Aberdeen. They were good enough to give us him. They gave us Joe Shaughnessy last year.
“My relationship with Derek and Aberdeen has been good and I wouldn’t want to spoil that.
“If there was a problem then Derek would have called me on Sunday night. From the outside, my guess is he’ll be trying to get another experienced keeper in.”
