Tall tales, short stints, and meeting the cast of Neighbours

Here's a lighthearted diversion to kick off the week. Around early June, former Raith Rovers striker and now Scottish radio football pundit Gordon Dalziel wasn't particularly impressed with Celtic signing Ange Postecoglou as their new manager. Granted, it was a left field choice, but Dalziel also hazily recalled that he'd come across Ange as an opponent during their respective playing days.

Now considering that Dalziel's shtick appears to be at least partly dependent on being the tall-tale telling drunk at your local pub, his co-hosts back then figured that he was probably just talking out of his arse. 

Well, as it turns out, Dalziel's memory wasn't completely off the mark - except for the fact that he played with Ange, not against him, as his co-hosts pointed out on the weekend. Dalziel played two games for South, both as a substitute: a 4-3 loss against Melbourne Croatia in which Ange actually scored; and the next week in a 1-1 draw against Melbourne City JUST. Sadly, no footage seems to have surfaced of either game.

And yes, that is my tweet they're reading out on air, though I must give the credit to club historian John Kyrou and his spreadsheet covering every South player (that we know of) with extraneous notes like:

"Used as a substitute twice, failed to attend training in third week and sought a quick return to Scotland as he was expecting to walk straight into the first team."

And if, like me, you were wondering where such an assessment of Dalziel's brief time in Australia may have come from, it was probably the July August edition of Aussie Soccer magazine - thanks to Mark Boric for fishing out the relevant chunk from that publication. Shoddy as his memory and punditry may be, for his part Dalziel seems to have been a handy player, including scoring in a Scottish League Cup final, which Raith won against Celtic.