Barry Lavety. Did you know that www.soccerbase.com lists his weight as 12 stone, 12 pounds and his height at 6 foot? Therein lies at least part of his problems. I don't think he's been that light in 10 years.

However, I digress. Basher had made quite a name for himself at St Mirren coming through their youth ranks to break into their team as a teenager. Away back in 1991-1992 he debuted for the saints, but it was the following season that he really began to catch the eye. In that 1992-93 season he scored 20 goals and the buddies narrowly missed out on promotion. Looking back his career never again hit the heights it did in its teens. Failing a drugs test did not improve his stock either.

So, in 1996 and aged 21 he moved to Hibernian. Initial signs were good, he scored on his debut against Brechin, but injury problems dogged him and he only managed eight games in his first season at Hibs. His absence did not help a team who narrowly avoided relegation thanks to a play off victory against Airdire. It was about this time that rumours started to surface that the player had serious injury problems, with either his joints or his metabolism. It was even suggested that the player would never regain full fitness. Despite a couple of semi successful seasons, that diagnosis would prove scarily accurate.

The following season was better for Basher and once Duff Jimmy had sussed that Lee Power and Tall Pish were rubbish he opted for a centre pairing of Basher and the newly arrived Stevie Crawford from Millwall. And a fine pairing they were too. If only Duffy Jimmy could have organized the nine players behind them we might have avoided the ignominy of relegation that season. Basher finished joint top Hibs goalscorer that season with 9 goals. Surely there was something promising in store?

So back to the first division, and Basher would surely have been banging in the goals. Sadly, this was not to be the case. It all started so brightly too: On the opening day of the season Hibs ventured to Greenock, and returned with 3 points, thanks to an obligatory Basher striker in the 99th minute. That was as good as it got however, and he rarely started for Hibs that season, and contributed but one more goal. That was against Hamilton in January in a 4-0 win. I remember it well, I was jumping up and down like a bairn willing him to do well. I suppose that deep down I really knew the writing was on the wall for him: Back in September Mixu Paatelained had arrived and the aging Finn became first choice up front with Stevie Crawford.

Basher made his final appearance for Hibs in the final game of 1998-1999 against Falkirk at Easter Road. Two goals that season was a sorry return and he started less games than Alex Marinkov that season: his star was on the wane. He moved back to St Mirren, scoring 15 goals in 1999-2000 before he was bedeviled by injury problems. His career has meandered along at the lower levels ever since, with stops at Team Bath, Clydebank and Pollock as well as visits to the United States and Iceland. Invariably he scored goals wherever he went.

So it was with sadness that I read about his release from Saint Mirren in the last couple of days, and a bit of me still feels for him. I mean he wasnae any Hibs legend in the true sense of the word, but he was to me. 6-2 was great, but my favourite derby was back on April 11th 1998. The worst Hibs team in a generation versus the best Hearts team in a generation. Hibs team headed for division 1 and a Hearts team headed for cup glory (thanks to some dubious refereeing obviously). What happened next? I can't say I remember everything clearly, but I do remember Basher running at the Hearts defence who backed off and backed off until Basher skilfully placed the ball past Rousset. He could do that. He was skilful for large bloke.

Good luck Basher.

Barry Lavety turns 30 next month. He made his Hibs debut at Brechin in August 1996, scoring in a 2-0 win. He made his final appearance as a substitute against Falkirk on the day Hibs were presented with the first division title, in May 1999.

Altogether he made 43 starts for Hibernian, with a further 23 sub appearances. He scored 12 goals.

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