Dyer: Let’s get on with the games for real now
by alan MaRSHall
ALEX DYER can’t wait for the real stuff to start after Kilmarnock’s pre-season programme ended with a 1-1 draw at Dundee United.
Greg Kiltie levelled at the start of the second half for the Rugby Park outfit after Cammy Smith had handed the top-flight newcomers the lead inside 60 seconds.
Killie beat Motherwell then lost to Livingston in warm-up games and gaffer Dyer said: “I’m excited for the next week and the first match against Hibs.
“It’s about putting out a side that will represent the club and put in a good performance.
“I’m happy with the work we’ve done this summer.
“We’ve had a good preseason and the lads have trained very well.
“We’re still rusty in areas and it will take time to pass the ball nice and sharply, the way we want to.”
Dyer, who has recruited Mitch Pinnock, Brandon Haunstrup, Zeno Ibsen Rossi, Aaron McGowan and Danny Whitehall, added: “I hadn’t even sat down in my seat and we were one goal down.
“But we regrouped after 15 minutes and played well.
“We moved the ball better and created chances.
“I switched things in the second half and we got the early goal. We had most of the game but it was a good workout for the boys.”
A FATHER told his son to head to London because the streets were paved with banknotes and gold.
Following his old man’s advice, the kid arrived in the Big Smoke on a Sunday night and immediately spotted £50 lying in the gutter.
As he watched it blow away into the distance, the youngster told himself, “Ach, I’ll start in the morning”.
Seize the day, dear readers, for we all never know what lies around the corner.
The phone call on Friday night to break the news of the death of David Hagen at the age of just 47 arrived like a brick through the window.
We all knew he had been suffering from motor neurone disease and, big Hagey being big Hagey, he spent the last two years dealing with this wretched illness in dignified privacy, with support from his very closest family and friends.
Yours truly is glad about that because it allows those of us who shared a chapter of his life to remember him at his absolute peak.
In these eyes he will forever be 21 and a big, handsome so-and-so with a gentle personality in stark contrast to the power he showed along the attacking line for Rangers.
One Ibrox teen posted a pic on
SPORTS VIEW
Instagram last week of his new Mercedes during a summer in which Steven Gerrard has warned of his unwillingness to work with youngsters with an ego.
From memory Hagey, who was good enough to muscle his way into a team of nine-in-a-row stars in the early 90s, drove a 10-year-old Ford Orion.
In fact, it was probably its lack of reliability that forged our friendship as we both made our way in our respective careers.
He would hang out at the offices of the Rangers News after training because he knew our photographer, Michael, and news editor, Eric, were always good for a lift back to Falkirk.
He was genuine, kind and charming. If he lacked the ruthlessness to make it at the very top level with the Light Blues over a prolonged period then let that stand as an endorsement of his personality rather than a criticism.
We even swapped jobs for a day for a feature. Hanging around the office so often, Hagey was always good for a decent write-up – and, sharp as a tack, he made a better reporter than I did a player.
This was the era of young players such as Hagey, Lee Robertson, Neil Murray and Steven Pressley – initially nicknamed Mr Logic by, I think, Ian Durrant because his terrible pudding bowl haircut put us all in mind of the character from Viz.
The fields of dreams in those days weren’t at Ibrox or Parkhead but Reserve League West venues such as Linlithgow and Shotts, where John McGregor and Billy Kirkwood spent half the time coaching and the other half herding cats.
Life moves on and if Hagey never became a first-team regular at Ibrox, he