WORLD CUP CRUNCH: 5 DAYS TO GO
Smiley Cyrus on song as O’Neill’s stand-ins shine
options on a different platform McGhee’s smartphone app idea is beginning to take off.
Already hailed “brilliant” by the Scottish entrepreneur who helped to develop Minecraft, his word puzzle game could become a new worldwide craze.
Yet it was away back in the 1980s when McGhee originally devised the game using a pen and scraps of paper to alleviate the boredom of long bus trips to games when he played for Aberdeen.
In the game a player has a screen showing 16 pairs of initials and has to think of someone famous for each of them: NS, Nicola Sturgeon; GL, Gary Lineker, and so on. The screen is refreshed after each answer and a running total grows.
McGhee added: “It goes all the way back to my time as a player with Aberdeen 30-odd years ago so I’ve just modernised it and launched it as an app with the publishers DC Thomson.
“It’s not truly commercial yet but we already have around 22,000 downloads and we have been working at the game to make sure it has improved since the launch.
“It’s now at a stage where they are going to market it properly – and then, well who knows.”
● Mark McGhee was speaking at the McDonald’s & Scottish FA Community Football Day in Strathaven, encouraging youngsters to play football at a grassroots level and celebrating Quality Mark clubs in the area. For more information visit www.mcdonalds.co.uk/betterplay.
MARK McGHEE
CYRUS CHRISTIE stepped successfully into Seamus Coleman’s boots to score in a comfortable Irish win.
The Derby full-back, in for the injured Everton star, made it 2-1 after Martin O’Neill’s men had taken a 28th-minute lead through skipper Jonathan Walters and Jose Gimenez levelled before the break.
A well-executed third from sub James McClean rounded off a good evening for manager Martin O’Neill.
He made eight changes with only keeper Darren Randolph and defenders Christie and Shane Duffy retained as they saw off the South Americans in Dublin.