red-star-par, Tue 23 Jun 19:14

While savouring the thought of the prolific striker Oli Shaw adding to a front line that boasts the best centre forward in the division, Chris Kane, the tireless Zak Rudden and the exciting young talent of Andy Tod Jr, it got me thinking about his father Greg Shaw and reminiscing back to the glory days of Paton`s Pars in the 90s.

This was a fantastic time to be a Pars fan, there was none of this tippy-tappy possession based football, knocking it about at the back, it was fast, frantic, physical, 4-4-2. Most teams in the league in those days played with a real good solid backbone of big, hard men that you wouldn`t mess with, the likes of Shaun Dennis, Norrie McCathie, Davie Sinclair, Jon McLaughlin, Stuart Burgess, Jimmy Sandison, Crawford Baptie- proper competitors would would fight tooth and nail to get 2 points. What really strikes me about that time though was the front line pairings that would be in the box, ready to latch on to the superb deliveries that the likes of Allan Moore, Neil McCann, Ivo Den Bieman, Kevin McAllister and Alan Lawrence would be whipping in there.

Most teams seemed to have some great strike partnerships which seemed to tickle the twine on a weekly basis. We had Ross Jack and George O`Boyle, then Andy Smith and George Shaw, ably supported by the aforementioned Greg Shaw, and Gerry Britton. Britton and George Shaw had teamed up before at Partick and I think Dundee to great effect, and Dundee also had the Eddie Annand, James Grady partnership which must have been one of the best double acts in Scottish football, the energetic, diminutive Grady buzzing all over the place while the big, physical Annand had a knack of grabbing the goals. This pairing then teamed up again to great effect at Ayr United. Grady had already done well doing the running at Clydebank for Ken Eadie, who was a player that really knew where the goals were, and I always hoped we would sign. At Morton there was Alex Mathie and Rowan Alexander, and later Rowan Alexander paired up well with Derek Lilley, and when Alexander moved on Warren Hawke and Lilley linked up well. Of course, the Rovers had Gordon Dalziel and young Stevie Crawford, Airdrie had Owen Coyle and Andy Smith, St Johnstone had the deadly Steve Maskrey who teamed up with the powerful Roddy Grant, then George O`Boyle and Kevin Thomas. At Falkirk in the early 90s they had the cultured Simon Stainrod, a really talented and cultured player, who scored from the half way line, and could trap the ball with his erse, and he formed a great partnership with Sammy McGivern. Unfortunately the way football is played these days, there doesn`t seem to be these long-running partnerships in the game, sometimes seeing that link up play and understanding that a good strike-pairing had was a joy to behold. Some great names, great partnerships, fantastic characters, some brilliant games too, and afterwards, some memorable nights out.