DAVID Weir believes Kirk Broadfoot's elevation from Rangers' fringe player to Scotland hero within the last nine months is no more than his application and willingness to learn have merited.
When Broadfoot spent most of the first six months of his Ibrox career in the reserve team, he turned to Weir for personal extra-curricular tuition on the Murray Park training pitch in a bid to improve his prospects of first-team football.
Weir was
only too happy to fulfil the role of mentor to a player whose ability he feels has been unfairly questioned and the veteran defender was more thrilled than most when Broadfoot marked his call-up to the Scotland squad last month with the opening goal on his debut in a vital 2-1 World Cup qualifying win in Iceland.
"I don't know how much of an influence I've had on Kirk," said Weir, "but I was delighted to see how well he did in Iceland. The way it came about, he got a bit of a hard time for various reasons. Some people were not too sure about him.
"But from what I have seen of him, I've got nothing but admiration for him. The way he has progressed in his career and how hard he has worked to do that is fantastic.
"If he is getting criticised for that, then there is something wrong with us. If more people had the attributes he has, we would be a lot better off."
Broadfoot is likely to retain the right-back role for Scotland against Norway on Saturday with Weir expected to return in central defence to partner Gary Caldwell.
"If I'm playing alongside Gary, I'll be more than happy," added Weir. "He is doing very well for Celtic and he has done very well for Scotland. We have played together before and I don't think it should be too difficult to form a partnership. We are both playing at the same level, so I don't see it as a problem."
The biggest challenge for the Scottish defence will be handling Norway's in-form Aston Villa striker John Carew. Three years ago in Oslo, Weir helped tame Carew when Scotland won a World Cup qualifier 2-1 and that experience could be crucial.
"Carew's sheer presence causes problems, but he is also a very good footballer," said Weir. "He's very experienced now and is a top, top player.
"You just have to play it as you see it with him. There are certain balls you are just not going to be able to win against him. There are some players you are not going to outjump or beat to the ball every time. So you have to try and get in a decent position to win the second ball if you can't win it first time.
"You learn how to play that way as a defender. When you are younger, you just want to fight with every forward and outjump every forward. When you get older, you realise that's not always the best option."
Weir concedes that victory is imperative for Scotland on Saturday if they are to retain credible hope of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
"Every game for Scotland is a big game, but because there are only eight games in this group, the importance of this one is heightened," he added. "A couple of bad results and we could be out of it.
"By the same token, one of the benefits of the campaign being so short is that getting a couple of good results can really hurt other teams. You don't have as much time to recover or make amends."
The full article contains 620 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
