McParland and McCluskey On Trial

Former Celtic, Livingston and Queen of the South wideman Tony McParland has been named as one of the many trialists who are currently training with the Morton squad.

The 27-year-old had a spell on trial with the club in May 2008 but failed to win a deal from the then management team of Davie Irons and Derek Collins. The decision appeared to be a poor one as the former Scotland under-21 internationalist subsequently signed for Livingston and put in a few very impressive performances against us in the 2008/09 season.

I thought McParland (pictured, above) was outstanding in Livi's 2-1 win at Cappielow in August 2008; I named him my man of the match as he terrorised Jim McAlister, who was playing left wing-back that day, in front of the Cowshed.

McParland is joined on trial by another right-winger in former Hibs starlet Jamie McCluskey. In January 2004, McCluskey became the youngest player in SPL history when John Collins gave him his first team debut at 16-years and 79 days old. However, things didn't go to plan as a fall out with Collins saw him leave Easter Road.

McCluskey was tipped by those in the know as a player with the potential to be the best young player to come out of a youth system that produced players like Derek Riordan, Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Steven Whittaker and Steven Fletcher.

In fact, my brother once told me about how two of his friends, who both played against McCluskey when they were playing with Inverness Caley Thistle youths/reserves, used to rave about McCluskey saying that he was the best player they'd ever played against, even though they'd faced the likes of Shaun Maloney, Nacho Novo and Steven Fletcher.

After Hibs, McCluskey joined St. Johnstone but suffered terrible injury problems and was released after one season. He had unsuccessful trial spells with Partizan Belgrade and Serie A side Catania before signing for Wrexham, where he spent a year and a half before his release this summer.

Other trialists have been confirmed by the Greenock Telegraph as: former Aberdeen pair Jonathan Crawford (right-back) and Nicky Clark (central midfield), ex-Clyde defender Alan Lithgow (central defender), Grant Smith who had a spell playing in Australia with North Queensland Fury but who had also played with Livingston, Clydebank, Dundee United and most recently Ross County (left back/ central midfield/ left midfield), ex-Hibs, Motherwell, Partick Thistle and Stranraer player John Kane (right-back, central defender) and ex-Bolton youngster Chris Stokes (left-back).

Allan Moore also has two unnamed French trialists training with the club.

Greenock Telegraph - Boss: Prove You Are Worth A Deal (02.07.2010)

Greenock Telegraph - Ton To See Trialists In Action (06.07.2010)