Two kindred spirits, two flawed specialists, two irresistible enigmas. Derek Riordan and Kris Boyd share a prodigious ability to be both predatory and perplexing.

TWO kindred spirits, two flawed specialists, two irresistible enigmas. Derek Riordan and Kris Boyd share a prodigious ability to be both predatory and perplexing. Theirs will be a thrilling and probably decisive duel, fought out at opposite ends of the Easter Road pitch tomorrow.

In the green corner, the runt of the Gordon Strachan litter: a player blessed with a sniper's eye and cursed by a child's ignorance. In the blue corner, the man who makes Walter Smith feel every one of his 60 years: an unapologetically one-dimensional goal machine.

Boyd reiterated his ability to score like Marco van Basten while playing like Denise van Outen with an awesome opener in Rangers' 2-1 Co-operative Insurance Cup tie against Partick Thistle. Riordan's reunion with Hibs was consummated last weekend with a winning cameo performance against Hamilton Academical.

Kirk Broadfoot has witnessed enough of their talent at close hand to confound the popular conception that Boyd and Riordan are solely dependent on their natural instinct to strike a size five in the pokey.

The Rangers defender grew up in Ayrshire beside Boyd and the pair were graduates of the renowned Valspar Boys' Club conveyor belt. Broadfoot and Riordan then became youth team colleagues at Hibernian.

"It is not a simple case of them having a God-given talent," said Broadfoot.

"I know from first-hand how hard these guys work. You couldn't get Derek Riordan off the training pitch. I stay in the same area as Kris Boyd and I remember him as a boy scoring nine goals a game for his boys' club. I was in the year below him but I remember people telling me about him and remember seeing him hitting balls into the back of the net in the park.

"Riordan and Boydy are up there with the best strikers in the country."

Riordan's career has stalled after 2 years rotting in the Celtic reserves. It was not his ability or eye for goal, but his immaturity and inability to absorb instruction that quickly proved his undoing at Parkhead.

He is back where it all began and, Broadfoot reckons, his experiences in Parkhead purgatory will make him a more dangerous proposition when they meet again tomorrow.

"Derek was always a good finisher, he was unbelievable," said Broadfoot. "I think he was in the year above me and was close to the first team when I was there. Everybody regarded him as one of the best youngsters around, along with Garry O'Connor. They were probably the two next big things and it was obvious they were going to go on to bigger and better things.

"I wouldn't think it would have been easy for him. It is not nice sitting and watching. I did it for the first six months here and didn't like it. It gets to you after a while. It has probably made him stronger and determined to prove a few guys wrong."

For Boyd, proving doubters wrong is a full-time occupation. The former Kilmarnock striker has an incomparable ratio of a goal every second game. His volley against Partick was the 150th of his senior career, half of which have been converted at Rangers.

"I share a car with him every day and my ears are still ringing with him talking about that goal," said Broadfoot, who is not for indulging his ego.

"If you want to be picky, he should have put it across the goalkeeper," he said to an outbreak of laughter. "I was giving Steven Davis pelters up the wing as well for not playing the simple pass. I should be given more credit for making that decoy run.

"Boydy is a terrific striker and every team will be frightened when they see his name in the starting line-up."

None the less, Boyd remains a maddening mystery to his manager. Quite simply, he offers nothing but goals. It is why he is often overlooked for the most demanding games and why Smith has grown weary of the debate. Boyd makes Ally McCoist look like a marathon man but his striking qualities are comparable with the greatest.

With Kenny Miller and Andrius Velicka available, does Smith face a selection dilemma? "It does not come just on Sunday," he smiled diplomatically. "It was a terrific strike the other night but that is what Boyd is capable of. He's a fantastic finisher. I've seen him score some special goals in training but his one against Thistle was a cracker - with his left foot as well.

"He's up there with the best I've ever worked with. Obviously, Ally McCoist was a fantastic finisher and Boydy has that gift too. He's a natural. There are aspects of his game that let him down but there are not many around who can finish the way he can."

The other just happens to be playing for the opposition this weekend.