THE PR brief carried a throwaway line; the match between Kilmarnock and Dundee United tonight is on the telly "and nobody will be watching more closely than Andy McLaren".

It was a reference to the time he spent with either during his playing career but McLaren has not left it until now to look in on his old clubs following his retirement five years ago.

Stepping back from the senior game has created distance and yet the former striker spoke yesterday as though intimate with the lives of Scotland's younger players. The most prominent of them will be found in the squads competing at Rugby Park this evening, as United attempt to register their sixth win in seven league matches.

McLaren spent two spells spanning 12 years at the Tannadice club - albeit his final season included loans at Partick Thistle and Morton - with a three-year stay at Kilmarnock in between. He would divide his time up similarly yesterday, acknowledging the achievement of a Rugby Park team also able to win matches without the help of Kris Boyd before returning naturally to the triumph of this United team. They make the trip to Ayrshire tonight having arrived already at the summit of the SPFL Premiership table.

McLaren also attended to how the club's young players might continue to perform at the top of their game. During his initial 10 years at Tannadice he was often employed in the sort of youthful indiscretions which have since become his day job; now 41, the one-time Scotland internationalist runs A&M Training, a charity which uses football to help in the care of adolescents who might otherwise be at risk of becoming embroiled in anti-social or criminal behaviour. This Tannadice Young Team are not quite a public menace - whatever their Premiership rivals might say - but McLaren would also warn them to make sure they steer clear of the pitfalls which might upset their own careers.

He has been impressed by the manner in which such as Stuart Armstrong, Keith Watson and Ryan Dow conduct themselves on the pitch and it is an attitude which the United youth team alumnus hopes they carry with them off the pitch.

"I look back now and when I was 16, 17 we trained every day, morning and afternoon. Maybe Monday night you'd have a game," said McLaren, who helped bring the Scottish Cup to Tannadice in 1994 before becoming a fans' favourite at Kilmarnock. "People think that if you get signed at 16, 17 then you're a football player but you're not. You're not even in the door yet.

"They have to put in the hours. That's what we did. I don't know if that's the case now - I see these Facebook and Twitter boys who are out the door at 12 o'clock and away to watch boxsets. We never had that option. You were in there until five o'clock because you had jobs cleaning boots or washing changing rooms. That might seem a bit old school but it was character building. You're not going to improve sitting in the house watching boxsets, you know what I mean? I probably sound like a bitter old pro . . ."

McLaren is a more enthusiastic supporter, both of the Scottish game and United's current place in it. The club's only defeat this season - a 6-1 thumping at Celtic Park - was dismissed as "a freak result" and he is satisfied with how United have coped with other significant losses, namely Ryan Gauld and Andy Robertson. "It doesn't seem to have affected them and they now have the wee boy Dow who has come in. I think the biggest credit you can say is that you don't notice any difference, do you?" McLaren added. "And Kilmarnock? Kilmarnock have been a big surprise for me because I thought, taking Boyd out of that team, they would really struggle. They had relied on big Boydy scoring and he kept them up last season but Allan Johnston and Gary Locke have changed the way that they play."

There will be an opportunity tonight to have a closer look. Nobody will appreciate that more than McLaren.

Andy McLaren was previewing the SPFL's latest #fitbafriday clash between his two former sides which will be televised live on BT Sport (kick-off 7.45). BT Sport brings you up to 30 games from the Scottish Premiership, at least 10 Rangers games from the Championship, plus two Edinburgh derbies.

www.bt.com/sport or call 0800 169 1690