WATCHING PLAYERS MAKE SCOTS SIDE FILLS ME WITH PRIDE

WATCHING Scotland rattle six past the Faroes on Saturday was terrific for the country but it also provided myself and Jim Jefferies with a great sense of personal satisfaction.

No less than eight of Walter Smith's squad and five of the starting line-up have worked under us at various times in their careers.

It has been a privilege to work with Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley, Davie Weir, Gary Naysmith and Kris Boyd and I was delighted for every one of them.

It was almost a decade ago but I remember signing Elvis from Dundee United as if it were yesterday.

He was one of the best buys we ever made and this evening in Lithuania he will become the most capped Hearts player in history.

That's a terrific honour for him and it will be good to see Craig Gordon and another Hearts old boy alongside him in the Scotland defence. Gary Naysmith has always been a special talent and it was great to see him playing so well because he's had a lot of injury problems.

He made his Hearts debut at 17 and was one of the most talented young players we have ever worked with.

Now, after overcoming a career-threatening injury, he is at the top of his game.

Alongside him at Goodison Park and still going strong at the age of 36 is Davie Weir.

Big Davie will enter the Hall of Fame when he wins his 50th cap and there is nobody in the game more deserving of the honour.

It seems like only a few weeks ago since we handed him his debut for Falkirk and he was up against Duncan Ferguson.

He coped admirably with that and I remember taking him to see a Russian gymnast most days after training in an attempt to improve his agility - it seems to be working.

He has come so far since those days and if anybody ever wants an example of what you can get with application and the will to succeed then it is Davie.

What he doesn't get much credit for is his skill level because he was more than capable of playing centre forward as well.

Last, but not least of the Famous Five is Kris Boyd. He is the most recent of the players we have worked with and I was delighted to see him score another two goals.

He is doing fantastically well and getting a lot of great publicity at the moment and deservedly so.

However, what irks is that last season when he was still at Kilmarnock he was the top scorer in Scotland, yet didn't get picked for the last Under-21 squad.

But, only a couple of months later, after signing for Rangers, he gets picked for Scotland's Kirin Cup games in Japan.

Of course I know players can improve but they can't improve that much in such a short space of time.

It just makes you wonder because I thought scoring that many goals for Kilmarnock was more of an achievement than doing it for Rangers where he gets loads more chances.

Maybe leaving Killie was the only way for him to get caps and his situation made me think of what happened with John Robertson at Hearts.

Wee John didn't win his first cap until he was 26 and by that stage he'd already scored 150 goals at Tynecastle.

By the time he retired he had won 16 caps and started for his country just eight times.

Considering his scoring record was comparable with Ally McCoist's then his international honours were a meagre return.

Taken from the Daily Record