Performance of the Week - Week 39

It’s Monday, which means it’s Performance of the Week time, Inside Left's opportunity to give recognition to those teams, players and events in the week just passed that deserve a special mention for services rendered in the name of Scottish football. As always we have four nominations for you to choose from, so without further waffling, here are this weeks nominations, each one carefully hand-picked by the staff of Inside Left.

Dundee United, for their first win of the season.  It's been a long time coming, but they've finally done it. After a series of poor results and poor performances, it took a match against their New Firm rivals to bring home the first three-pointer of the season. In truth, it was a poor match and where it not for Tommy Wright's moment of lunacy just after the restart we doubt very much United would have scored; a draw would have been a fairer result. But sure, don't listen to me - I'm just a bitter and twisted Aberdeen supporter frustrated at his teams inability to win a game at home. Francisco Sandaza looks a class act and defensively United looked pretty solid. On their few forays into Aberdeen's penalty area, they certainly looked a lot more dangerous. Next week they take on Hearts, their gaffer's old team at Tannadice; can United use this win as a springboard to greater things?

The two Edinburgh teams for sneaking up on the rest of the league. We've not been kind to Hibs and Hearts (Scotland's very own comedy duo) here at Inside Left, mainly because they've just been so crap this season. Or at least, we thought so until a sobering look at the league table wiped the smile of our faces. There's the New Firm propping up the table,  while the Old Firm are joined by two of Edina's finest in third and fourth spot.  How in the hell did that happen? Well, partly thanks to other results (Killie and Hamilton losing), but also due to both Hibs and Hearts grinding out the results. Hearts are the only team other than Rangers not to have lost at home this season, while Hibs have managed to limit the damage away from home with a win, a draw and a loss. The possible blips on the horizon? Well, Hearts are financed by a man who runs a large investment bank. We live in interesting times - if Lehman Brothers can go bust, what's to stop Romanov's bank going the same way? Tales last week from Tynecastle about the players not getting paid should not be dismissed lightly. Does anyone remember Gretna?

Albion Rovers for the highest scoring game of the week. Just to prove that it's not just the Highland League that has a monopoly on high scoring games, on a Saturday where the top division produced a miserly 5 goals in four games (the highest scoring game was the 1-1 at Love Street) it took Coatbridge's finest to get the blood racing. A cracking six goals courtesy of two hat-tricks took their away goals tally to 11, a number they share with fellow division team Forfar. And to emphasise just how good that is, consider that the team with the next highest away goals tally in Scotland's top league is Celtic, with a rather poor eight. Elgin City had three players sent off in that game which takes a wee bit of the shine off the result, but nevertheless, well done Albion. The result moves the Wee Rovers up to 7th. Elgin stay bottom on just four points.

Derek Riordan, on his dramatic comeback. Lost in the Parkhead wilderness since his move there in 2006 (he made just over 20 appearances, scoring five times), his full debut against St. Mirren came in a team that consisted mainly of reserves and other Strachan cast-offs. Caught between a rock and a hard place - a manager that wouldn't play him or sell him (Celtic turned down a £400k offer from Burnley) - Riordan's public frustration at not being selected was not doing him any good. With the likes of Scott McDonald, Georgios Samaras, Vennegoor of Hesselink ahead of him in the pecking order, he was never going to get selected for first team duties. Courted by Hearts during the summer, he opted instead to go back to Hibs, his first team for whom he made more than 120 appearances, scoring 54 goals along the way. His return to the side as a substitute in the second half last week against Dundee United (in the number '01' shirt, his old shirt 10 having been given to Colin Nish), was his first game for quite some time. Warmly welcomed by the Hibs following, he was clearly short of match fitness and lacked the sharpness the Hibees where used to. But it all came good this week when he came on for Stephen Fletcher early in the second half and fired in a cracker of a goal from outside the area. It all reads a bit like an extra-cheesy Roy Of The Rovers  story - "local boy returns to his old club to score the winner". 

The magic of football indeed.

That's it for this week. Leave a comment with your choice or, better yet, nominate your own. See you all next week!