It was such sad news that Pat Liney has passed away.
As two Dundee goalkeepers, we had a great relationship and the club got the mark of respect for Pat last Friday night spot on.
I also have to say that Gary Bowyer did as well.
He’s new to Dens Park but already you can see that he just ‘gets Dundee’.
I think they’ve got a good one this time.
He’s been a breath of fresh air.
I’ve got so many memories of Pat – too many to share in one column.
When our Deefiant team beat the ’62 side’s unbeaten run he was absolutely delighted – the first man into the dressing room to shake everybody’s hand.
In fact, more times than I can remember he was first in to do that.
Believe it or not, I’ve got a print of him he signed and put on it ‘to my hero’.
You can imagine how special that made me feel.
That’s a precious item of mine and another one is a painting that Debbie bought in a Hall of Fame auction of me and Pat going round the pitch at Dens.
His stories were amazing and he was a gentleman for Dundee Football Club as well as so many people’s hero.
A few folk were drawing parallels between Dundee United’s second leg collapse in the Netherlands and the Scotland play-off defeat I was part of under Berti Vogts.
You can understand why.
I don’t think our game was as one-sided as last Thursday’s, mind you.
Mark Birighitti is under the spotlight.
Again you can understand why because of the number of goals he’s conceded – not just in Alkmaar but at Tynecastle as well.
He’ll be disappointed with a few of them but this is a guy who kept a clean sheet in the first leg at Tannadice.
The nature of being a goalie is hero to zero.
It’s a lonely place when you get games like that, believe me.
They’ll be working on building his confidence back up.
I got slaughtered after Amsterdam and I don’t think there were many defenders coming out to say ‘I could have done a bit better’.
Defenders should be stopping crosses and stopping shots.
The message will be – don’t try and be a super hero in your next few games.
He’ll be looking to get a run of games without making big mistakes.
I’m assuming Jack Ross has signed this goalie so he’ll have faith in him.
Jon McLaughlin has always been a steady goalkeeper – and he made a couple of important saves to give Rangers a chance of making it into the Champions League group stage.
He’s played enough now to have a good feel for what being a goalie there is all about.
But I don’t think many would have predicted at the end of last season that Allan McGregor would hang around for another year to be a back-up.
It will be very interesting to keep an eye on that situation if McLaughlin keeps getting picked for the big games.
Nobody who has been a number one for as long as McGregor is going to be happy with life as a number two.
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