Kyle Lafferty

But yeah, I mean, I could wax lyrical about Paulo Dybala all day, and he sort of looks to be back to his best almost.

Do you know he played up front in, I think, with Kyle Lafferty once?

He did, yeah.

But-

They were at Palermo together, and Kyle Lafferty outscored him in a season.

[laughs]

Napoli, who I still think are the best, one of the best teams.

And, you know, I think back to, um, the first spell under O'Neill, and he has the first, um, I think it was the World Cup qualifiers where it doesn't look great, um, but there's little, little green shoots.

And, and then the, and then they have the, the Euros campaign that they have, and, and it starts with a moment where they have adversity and then, and then Lafferty gets it, the, the, the late goal and, and it's 2-1 in Hungary, and, and they bounce from that.

And, and it feels like we've got that bounce.

We got the bounce in the first game.

... to play in that position for us in a game, as I mentioned a couple of times, where you have, you know, such little possession, and that's, that's just gonna be the reality of being a number nine for, for Northern Ireland.

And, you know, you know, I mentioned the, the, the Euros campaign where we qualify.

We obviously have Lafferty there, and Lafferty's the one that's banging in the goals and, and is in moments, you know, grabbing away games by the scruff of the neck.

You think of the Greece game and so on, but we don't have that at the minute.

I mean, uh, I mean, sorry Scotland, both of those were absolutely shocking.

Uh, Kyle Lafferty from a Northern Ireland [laughs] point of view.

He, I think he did okay at Norwich, but he was a lot better for, for other clubs.

Harry Kane is obviously the biggest one that, that I remember.

But that was right at the end of his career.

But I think you are right, I think he may well have been there with, with us before.

Kyle Lafferty.

Um, th- that again was more in the middle of his career.

And I was probably getting a wee bit more experience as well.

Kyle Lafferty, David Healy, but you'd sort of a real good group of boys there that sort of, we just grew in confidence.

I think Nor- uh, Hungary away was a big one where I actually came on, scored, and assisted, and made it 1-2-1, and then confidence just went through the roof.

We just felt like any time we went out in that group we were gonna win.

Finally getting where they're looking for.

I'm wondering, is anything going to happen with Kyle Lafferty after he absolutely assaulted the referee? Is that just being brushed under the carpet? Because I saw he was playing yesterday, I saw Ross McKenzie, that's it, Liam, cheers.

I don't think there's

anything they can do about it.

I don't know, there must be.

I don't know because I mean who recorded it and it wasn't as if it was on the telly or anything like that do you know what I mean so

I bet it's recorded it's like being a veal club veal that's a get about and like it's taken away from Kyle Lafferty for a minute right but say you have evidence of a player punching a referee right obviously that's not what happened right but punching a referee retrospectively something can be done with that if there's footage and there's footage of him just absolutely barging a referee for no reason I don't

get meant to yeah I don't like to condemn about it I would just leave it

I think I have I've went with the obvious

you've went with I would have went with bits near them okay it might be eh 13 Kyle Lafferty oof arrived at Rangers in 2008 from which club oh again I did not look like enough letters

did it now I've shortened it to its nickname oh well Spurs instead of Tottenham.

He's still playing in the juniors.

I never get up.

Obviously.

Kyle Lafferty.

Went to Rangers 2008 for which club? Norwich.

Yes, he is all kind

of Kyle Lafferty-esque, Peter Crouch-esque in terms of the way he holds himself and kind of the wee arms and legs all over the place.

But I thought it was a really good performance.

He's still only 23 years of age.

to look as though he's about to fall on his arse, and then suddenly he's emerging, those long legs come out, he emerges with a ball and he leaves him for dead.

He reminded me yesterday of the way Kyle Lafferty would have played against him, and they feared him as well, where... you didn't quite know what Big Laugh was going to do.

And like Laugh, Naderi, he's awkward.

You know, he runs awkwardly.

And finally, we chat to new Elgin's Mikey Weir as the team from Elgin bid to host Johnston Borough in the second round.

Johnston Borough, a team synonymous with Kyle Lafferty and Graham Dorans over the years.

But Anthony Newland's team will be looking to cause a surprise of their own this weekend.

And Mikey joins Grant to discuss how that could be a possibility.

Thanks very much to Ross Fiske of Bucky Rovers as they prepare for their match with Irvine Meadow on Saturday.

Now, New Elgin Football Club have an equally anticipated game.

They are up against Johnston Borough, a club that have possessed players like Graeme Dorans and Kyle Lafferty over the years.

And I'm joined by their skipper, Mikey Weir, to discuss this encounter this weekend.