McLeish: I wanted to cap David Murphy for Scotland

Jan 18 2008 By Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish was so impressed with David Murphy's performances that he wanted to cap him for Scotland.

Unfortunately for him the Hibernian raider was born in Hartlepool and had no North of the Border lineage.

"Everytime I saw him in Scotland in the past couple of years he was a full-back who liked to get forward," said McLeish.

"He has obviously got defensive qualities as well, and he always impressed me.

"He is a player I have admired for a long time and I made enquiries to see whether there was any Scottish blood in there when I was in the Scotland job because we would certainly have brought him into the fold given the displays we saw up there."

Murphy cost Blues an initial £1.5 million and resurrected his career in Edinburgh after being released by Middlesbrough.

Garry O'Connor was a former team mate of his at Easter Road.

The striker said: "David has a lot of quality in his left foot and is a real good defender but he gets forward as well and gets balls in the box. He's fantastic at set pieces and corners too."