Flood focused amid 'paper talk' of Easter Road move

Sports Writer

Sunday 24 February 2013

WILLO FLOOD'S connections to Hibernian boss Pat Fenlon run deep.

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Stewart Fisher

Deep enough to lend an air of authenticity to speculation which suggests he could make a Bosman move to the Easter Road club this summer.

Flood's agent Eamonn Collins spent a couple of years as Fenlon's assistant manager at Shelbourne a decade ago and the former midfielder trained with them on at least a couple of occasions to keep himself in trim before returning to a more full-blooded pre-season at Manchester City.

The grapevine suggests that both the 27-year-old and his fellow countryman Jon Daly could be whisked away to the capital this summer, but Flood – who has been back to his best in recent weeks following the arrival of Jackie McNamara – reckons whoever started that particular rumour is guilty of getting ahead of themselves. "It is just paper talk." Flood said. "Because Pat's Irish, because I get on well with him and I've known him a long time, people are putting one and one together and getting 21."Having said that, the two will doubtless express warm words at some point this afternoon with the two teams meeting on Tayside, even if the stakes are high with just a solitary point separating them in the SPL table.Flood, incidentally, is hardly a novice to the perils of playing against a team that covets your services, having endured an agonising league cup semi-final defeat – including a missed penalty in the shoot-out – against Celtic at Hampden 24 hours before joining the Parkhead club back in January 2007. His performance in that match also showed he is adept at focusing on the job in hand, just as he is for today's encounter. "I know Pat from back home, he's a nice fella and I'm glad to see him doing so well," added Flood. "Pat has done a great job at Hibs, from where they were last season he has them going and they look well-organised. They're threatening going forward with Leigh Griffiths as well, so it'll be tough but we'll be going up against them confident .We've obviously got that monkey off our back [in relation to our record] at home now as well, so hopefully we can kick on."McNamara wants to retain his midfielder, but United aren't exactly flush and on the evidence of Tuesday night in Lanarkshire, the Irishman has no shortage of competition in the engine room from the likes of Richie Ryan, John Rankin and Stuart Armstrong. Although the exact financial distribution model for this year's top flight is subject to change, a strong SPL finish could make the difference between players like Flood staying or going. United have a habit of coming on strong in the second half of a season."We're playing teams around us – Hibs on Sunday, Inverness in midweek – so it's a good time to go on a little run," said Flood. "The squad is obviously good enough, you look at the boys going forward and what a talented bunch we have – I wouldn't say there are many better wingers or strikers anywhere in the league than what we've got. We've been playing well under the gaffer, but to be honest I thought we were playing well under the old gaffer. We maybe just weren't getting the little breaks we deserved."United's run since the appointment of McNamara has been impressive before the 6-2 setback at Parkhead last Saturday. His other three matches in charge have ended in wins, with striker Johnny Russell having scored the opening goal in all four of those matches. "He's high on confidence and you know what strikers are like when they feel like that," said Flood.

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Flood focused amid 'paper talk' of Easter Road move

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