Alan Pattullo: Pleasing to see Yogi back where he belongs

SURELY the world of football is not so cruel that it can’t create room for John Hughes. That is the thought which remained with me as the former Hibernian manager’s enforced sabbatical from football grew ever longer.

Finally, his agony – and you imagine it was agony – came to an end last Tuesday when he was officially confirmed as manager of Livingston, working beneath his best friend and new director of football at the club, John Collins.

It was a welcome bullet of news all but obliterated by the shenanigans taking place at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Not that this would have bothered Hughes. He does seem genuinely unfusssed about the profile which professional football can grant. From time to time during his exile you would see him with his earphones on as he carried out punditry duties at some ground or other. He never seemed entirely happy as he looked on from afar. Indeed, one suspects that Collins noticed this too, and ordered Hughes to join him on the golf course each day at Craigielaw in order to ensure he had some routine to his day after an adulthood which, up until 18 months ago, had been devoted to professional football. It wasn’t mentioned explicitly, but you imagine Hughes might have suffered from the black dog as he battled with not only inactivity, but also the ever-more bizarre critical outbursts from Rod Petrie, his former chief executive at Easter Road.

Someone you can tell gets such a buzz from football has to suffer when he is deprived of it. Apologies to Raith Rovers supporters, but Livingston’s handsome victory over the Kirkcaldy side on Saturday was this writer’s feel-good result of the weekend.