Liam Craig is flavour of the month at Hibernian and Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, is not surprised.
The midfielder was McInnes's first signing when he embarked on his managerial career at St Johnstone five years ago and he is fully aware of the danger he will present when his new club visits Pittodrie tomorrow night in the middle of a renaissance under Terry Butcher.
"I took Liam to St Johnstone from Falkirk," McInnes recalled. "He was fantastic for me; he contributed seven or eight goals every season and has got even more for Hibs already this year. He's into double figures and is having a really good season."
Craig, who has just turned 27, has the added responsibility of being captain, a Butcher appointment and one on which, McInnes believes, he is thriving.
"It takes different types to be a captain," he insisted. "He's a very important player for them and Terry has picked up on that very quickly. He's technically very good, with a great left foot and he's a brilliant team-mate to have in a dressing room. I've always been very fond of him and am glad to see him do well."
Mindful that Motherwell remain a point behind in the league table, McInnes is aware that playing a day earlier gives his players a chance to put daylight between the teams, albeit for a matter of hours. But there is a recognition, too, that Hibernian will provide a sterner challenge than they might have done had the match been played, say, a few months ago.
"Their form hasn't surprised me and that's probably the biggest compliment I can pay Terry," he said. "He's gone in there and brought about consistency of results. He's found a way to win and do it most weeks, that's something Hibs had struggled to do. I always thought they had good players but Terry has given them a structure of play which is bringing results. He has made them very tough opponents and this is as tough a game as you can get."
Aberdeen have no fresh injury concerns and are likely to field the side that won at Kilmarnock on Sunday courtesy of a Mark Reynolds goal late in the game.
"We're delighted to be doing well," said McInnes. "We're in the fight at the top end of the table and that's the most pleasing thing."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article