Ageing prodigy Allan still has the ability to thrill

Yesterday brought a significant birthday in the life of Scott Allan. As surprising as it is given his ever-youthful looks, the Celtic player, currently on loan at Dundee, is now nearer 30 than he is 20.

This won’t stop the status of prodigy being conferred upon him. No matter that the 26 year-old, pictured, is now at the tenth club of his career – albeit his Dundee residency, his sixth loan move, is only a temporary arrangement.

It is now just over seven years since he made his bow in senior football for Forfar Athletic in a 4-1 win over Ayr United in October 2010, while on loan from Dundee United.

This season can be seen as a microcosm of his career. Flashes of brilliance combined with long, frustrating stretches on the sidelines, his most recent absence due to a long-standing groin complaint.

He is so far out of the picture at Celtic, people have forgotten he is still tied to the club. Yet he is always admirably willing to deal with questions he knows are just different ways of asking the same thing: When’s it really going to happen for you Scott? He sparkled at Dens on Friday gainst Rangers, taking just over a minute to change the game after coming on as substitute. The chorus of “Scott Allan, you’re a w*nker, you’re a w*nker” by the Rangers fans still echoed when he got to work on the edge of the box. Employing perseverance, vision and skill, he tried, tried and tried again to unpick the Rangers defence, finally succeeding with an artful reverse pass for Mark O’hara to rifle home Dundee’s winner.

Afterwards Allan shrugged when asked about the jeers. His depressing point was: he gets abuse when he goes shopping so why should he expect it to be different inside a football ground?

Allan carries a lot on his shoulders. He seems to inspire a lot of ridiculous venom. But he remains a joy to watch.