NEIL ON BALLARD

Alex Neil has praised new signing Dan Ballard. Although the match against Rangers was ultimately cut short, the centre half had a composed 45 minutes and his physicality and calmness were encouraging . Neil has also talked about the recruitment strategy more broadly...

BIG

"He's big, strong, athletic, he covers the space well. Equally, he can get up and compete. He also uses the ball pretty well, so, what's there not to like?"

MODEL

"I think what's important is that, we've got a model where we've got experienced lads who are there to help with the young lads that are coming through,"

RECRUITMENT

"The majority of our recruitment, certainly the ones who we're purchasing, are going to be ones where their best years are ahead of them. It's then my job to try and develop those players, and get them the game time they need.”

SUCCESSFUL

"Equally, we've got to be successful in the same sentence and that's not an easy balance to strike. But, we'll do our best to do that, and we were successful with it last year."