Tansey left with ‘bitter taste’ after two-match ban

Greg Tansey admits the manner of his two-match ban left a bitter taste after Hearts defender Clevid Dikamona posted a clip of the St Mirren midfielder’s challenge on him on Twitter.

Dikamona tagged the Scottish Professional Football League in some now-deleted messages, prompting Aston Villa’s former St Mirren and Hibernian midfielder John McGinn to call him a “grass”.

Tansey subsequently received a two-match retrospective ban from the Scottish Football Association.

The 30-year-old, who returns for Saturday’s trip to St Johnstone, said: “I don’t want to get into trouble and say too much but the way it happened left a bitter taste in my mouth. But these things happen and you have to take it on the chin and deal with it.

“I’ve got an inbox, he could have taken it up with me there, but he didn’t. It’s not a problem, it’s gone now. People get tweet happy sometimes.”

Tansey – who returned from a 16-month groin problem after joining St Mirren in January – has previously experienced the dark side of social media.

“I had a little bit of it in Aberdeen,” he said. “When I was out for the length of time, because Aberdeen hadn’t said anything, fans started wondering why I was out. And then you get rumours.

“A couple of my mates from Aberdeen text me and said there was a rumour going round that you had a drink problem, hahahaha. They knew I could barely get out of bed. It would actually have cheered me up to walk into a pub to be honest and have a few drinks.

“It can be a good place and it can be a bad place. On that occasion, him tweeting the SFA, personally it’s not what I would have done. As I said, I’ve got an inbox.

“John McGinn had a little bit to say about it, which I had a little chuckle at.”

The suspension has been a relatively minor setback compared to Tansey’s lengthy injury problems at Pittodrie, and he feels he is now “not far away” from the player that Aberdeen signed from Inverness.

And the Liverpudlian believes he and his team-mates can keep improving and avoid his third relegation in four years.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get much chance to play for Ross County because I was injured. I took a bit of stick at Inverness because I had already signed for Aberdeen, but it’s still a club that I hold close to my heart and it hurt a lot that we went down that year. But you can learn from things like that.

“I can notice the difference in a changing room that’s gone, basically, for want of a better word, and waiting to be relegated. This is definitely not it. I’m very optimistic for the coming weeks and months.

“It starts with the gaffer. The gaffer keeps everyone on board. Training has been great, you are really working through the week, and you bear the benefits of it on a Saturday.”