SCOTLAND'S UNDER-21 SIDE
recorded a victory in their latest get-together, running out 2-1 winners
over Israel last night - but there was no place for the injured Garry
O'Connor, nor Ian Murray (also injured) and while Tam McManus did make
the squad he was not required to come off the bench in Hamilton. The
Hibs trio are bound to get their chance again, coach Rainer Bonhoff has
quite a few more outings planned for his young side, but this weekend
will come too soon for O'Connor who has already been counted out and may
also miss Hibs SPL clash with Dunfermline at Easter Road on Wednesday.
While it was another night of
frustration for McManus, who has failed to claim a regular first-team
slot at Easter Road so far this season, it was another step in the right
direction for the young Scots who took the lead after just 3 minutes
through a Shaun Maloney goal. That was cancelled out after 15 minutes
but the Scots never gave up the ghost and a header from Kennedy six
minutes form time gave Scotland a morale-boosting win. One former Hibee
did make it onto the park, Gary Caldwell making a return to
international football for the first time since his move from Easter
Road at the end of last season. Caldwell has only just returned to
league football, the start of his one-year loan deal at Coventry hit by
an injury that saw him miss the start of the season.
Gary Caldwell - came close to signing for another year (sns)
Caldwell revealed just how close he
came to signing on for another year at Easter Road, the defender
spending 3 months at the club after being brought to Easter Road on loan
from Newcastle. Another year looked on the cards after he signed a new
deal with Newcastle who were happy to release the player on a loan
basis, but as the player told the Evening News last night, a better
offer came along and halted Bobby Williamson's hopes of keeping the
central defender. "I
was prepared to come back to Easter Road this season but then Gary
McAllister got the Coventry City job, took Eric Black as his assistant
and they did the same sort of loan deal as had been proposed by Hibs,"
Caldwell said, adding: "After speaking to them I felt it was right to
head back south. People say the English First Division is quite a
challenging league, my big brother Steven played in it for Bradford
City, and I wanted to see what it was like for myself."
One of the factors that may have swayed Caldwell away from Easter Road
was the departure of Donald Park, the man who tipped former boss Franck
Sauzee about Caldwell in the first place. Caldwell acknowledged the
debt he owed Park when he said: "I’ll always be thankful to Hibs, and
Donald Park in particular, for giving me the chance to play first-team
football. Hibs took a bit of chance with me because I had only played
games for Darlington but being with them helped my career come on leaps
and bounds. It would probably be fair to say that if it wasn’t for Hibs
the chance of joining Coventry wouldn’t have come along." Meanwhile
another player who departed Easter Road is not finding it so easy in
English football. Ulises de la Cruz has had a pretty poor start to the
season at Aston Villa, where the fans are already becoming restless and
many branding the Ecuador international an 'expensive dud'.
De La Cruz has
come off the bench for the most part and failed to impress, being used
as a right-sided midfielder rather than a defender. Villa fan Paul
Grady told Hibs.net: "We thought we were getting a classy
player on the cheap, he certainly looked the part during the World Cup
finals, but Ulises gives the impression of a player who has all the
attributes but is never quite sure how to use them. He is a frustrating
player to watch, always looking it would appear to get rid of the ball
as quickly as possible and rarely passing it more then 3 yards or with
any real accuracy at that! I can't see Ulises making it in the
Premiership, I just don't think he has what it takes." It is of
course way too early to judge De La Cruz, however Grady's words will
ring a few bells with Hibs fans. The club meanwhile have finally
settled with De La Cruz's former club, LDU Quito, who were due a cut
from the £1.7m sale of De La Cruz to the English Premiership outfit.
LDU had said they were ready to launch an appeal to FIFA when Hibs
appeared slow to meet their obligations under the terms of De La Cruz's
transfer to Easter Road at the start of last season, but the South
American outfit have now said they are satisfied with an undisclosed
payment made by Hibs.
