Shankland is key to winning league

Now that Arbroath have played the three best Championship teams in a row, I suppose I’m in as good a place as anybody to talk about the early stages of the title race.

The fact that it is still very early is the biggest thing.

I’ll be waiting until after Christmas before I start making any prediction.

What I would say is that I think the winner will come from those three.

Inverness have got money troubles just now and, although I could see them getting a play-off place, I don’t think they’ll win it.

The main difference between the three sides has been that man Lawrence Shankland.

I think it was a great career decision for him to go to Tannadice and it will be an even better decision by United if he continues to be the player who keeps them at the front of the pack.

Shankland for San Marino

Talking of Shankland, I don’t think that starting him against Russia would be the best idea.

With Oli McBurnie dropping out of the squad, he’s the only out-and-out number nine that we’ve got left and in some ways Steve Clarke has nothing to lose by throwing him in at the deep end, with our hopes of qualifying from the group all but over. But for Shankland, it would be a tough shift and if things don’t go his way folk will be saying: ‘told you so, he’s just a Championship striker’.

Coming off the bench and then starting against San Marino on Sunday – a match that will be made for a penalty box striker like him – seems like a more sensible decision for me.

Gallagher deserves call-up

Declan Gallagher’s call-up is deserved as far as I’m concerned.

When he was at Dundee you could see he had the raw ingredients to be a really good centre-back – height, speed, aggression and good on the ball.

He’s been performing to a high standard with Livingston and now Motherwell in the top flight.

I also wouldn’t have a problem if another ex-Dundee man, Steven Caulker, gets selected in the future.

He was inconsistent at Dens but he’s got the pedigree of a top defender and is clearly playing very well in Turkey to be part of a team at the top of that league.

I wouldn’t rush into picking Lyndon Dykes, though.

He took his goal well against Celtic and had a really good game but I’d want to see that sort of form on a more consistent basis before we talk about seeing if he wants to play for us instead of Australia.

Declan Gallagher deserved his call-up to Scotland squad.