Q "How many Scottish players have scored an away hatrick in Europe? I know Brian Gallacher did it for St Mirren v Hammarby. Any others? asks Squire from Paisley.

A Perhaps surprisingly there are NINE others. First to bag an away hat-trick was the original 'Yogi' - John Hughes of Celtic back in September 1963 in a 5-1 victory over Basle of Switzerland in a first round Cup-Winners Cup tie.

Two years later in the same round of the same competition and in the same month, Bobby Lennox did the same in Holland against Go Ahead of Deventer as Celtic ran out 6-0 winners.

But in Belgium in November 1967 the prodigious George McLean surpassed those feats. 'Dandy' scored all four in Dundee's 4-1 Fairs Cup second round win over Royal Liege.

Almost exactly three years after that, Willie Wallace notched a treble for Celtic as they beat Irish Champions Waterford 7-0 in the second round of the 1970-71 European Cup.

There was a thirteen-year gap until the next big away scorer and that marksman's identity may come as a surprise. For it was Dave McPherson who was the first Rangers player to achieve this distinction when he scored four in Malta against Valetta in a Cup-Winners Cup first round game in September 1983.

Paul Sturrock was next up with three for Dundee United against Bohemians of Ireland in a 5-2 UEFA Cup first round win in September 1985.

One month later came Brian Gallagher with all St Mirren's goals in the 3-3 draw in Sweden with Hammarby in the UEFA Cup second round. Gallagher is the only away Scottish hat-trick scorer not to finish on the winning side in the match in question. He is also the only one to have scored an away hat-trick and end up losing the tie as Hammarby won at Love Street in the second leg.

Another long hiatus followed with nearly eleven years elapsing before (inevitably, I suppose) Ally McCoist got in on the act with three as Rangers routed Russian champions Alania Vladikavkaz 7-2 in a Champions League qualifier in August 1996.

The last such occurrence to date was also the only time when two players bagged away hat-tricks in a single game. Robbie Winters hit four and Gary McSwegan scored three as Dundee United ran out 8-0 winners against the hapless Principat of Andorra in a UEFA Cup preliminary round match in July 1997. For the record, Lars Zetterlund scored United's other goal.

So there we have it. Ten in all. Three apiece for Celtic and Dundee United. Two for Rangers and one each for Dundee and St Mirren. All by recognised strikers except McPherson's. You can take some consolation, Squire, in that I reckon Gallagher's hat-trick was the hardest to achieve. I know some of the early ones were scored against teams from Holland and Belgium but most football was part-time in those countries in those days.

Q Junior fan, Paisley, asks: "Any info on Alistair Brodie,a keeper with Petershill,Yoker and ,I think,Clydebank?"

A This was a real head-scratcher but fortunately our good friends at the United Clydebank Supporters website came to the rescue. Alastair Brodie made just one League appearance for Clydebank. It was a game in the old Division Two 2 away to Stirling Albion on February 27th 1971 which Bankies lost 2-0. After that, the trail turns cold. He doesn't appear to have played for any other senior clubs and probably returned to the junior ranks.

Q From DAVYBAIRDY: "Who is the second top goal scorer for Scotland ? "

A Since the top scorers are Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law with 30 goals each, then, technically speaking, the second top scorer is also the first!

But next up in the scoring stakes is Hughie Gallacher. Some sources credit him with 23 goals, others with 24 and there are also question marks over the game against Northern Ireland in 1929. According to some Gallacher scored five times in that match while others say four.

Having consulted with the estimable Forrest Robertson on this one, we can say that Gallacher is certainly top scorer after Dalglish/Law and that he definitely scored 24 international goals. If, however, he scored five in the aforementioned match then his tally rises to 25.

The top ten is completed by: 4. Lawrie Reilly 22. 5. Ally McCoist 19. 6= RC Hamilton, Maurice Johnston 14. 8= RS McColl, John Smith, Andy Wilson 13. Top scorer still playing is John Collins with 12 but as he has retired from international football, his tally will not increase.

The list is a little surprising for those of us who were certain that the names of Joe Jordan, Colin Stein and Alan Gilzean were certain to rank among our top scorers.

Q From Gunner’s Mate: "Who are Livingston`s & Inverness CT`s most capped players @ "A" level & how many appearances have they made ?"

A Let’s take the easier part first. Neither of these clubs is up to speed with having players who are internationals as neither lists any full internationals in any record books though the new Rothmans ( which you can get at a substantial discount by clicking on the link on the Back of the Net page, he sneakily adds) may include details. Richard Hastings, currently with Ross County, is Caley Thistle’s most-capped player having won 19 of his 26 caps for Canada while playing in the Highland capital.

Hastings made his debut in a 1-0 win over Macedonia in Toronto on May 18th 1998. Davide Xausa, who also played for both Caley and Canada, has more caps but not when wearing Caley colours.

As for Livvy, David Alleyne was an international for Barbados but the status of some Carribean games as full internationals is debatable. The Barbados FA has no website, only a hotmail address, so I have not been able to verify the number of caps he won during his three years at Livingston from March 1995- May 1998 and none of the various Livingston websites seem to offer any information either. Strange, as it’s not as if the club is weighed down with international players. You’d think they’d make more of a noise about the few they’ve had.

By my best reckoning Barbados played 19 internationals during Alleyne's time with Livvy and he could have played in only twelve of these as an absolute maximum.

If it isn’t Alleyene then the answer is Marvin Andrews. Despite having only played two seasons at Almondvale, Andrews has an impressive international record, having amassed twelve Trinidad & Tobago caps while with Livvy. There is no dispute as to the legitimacy of these caps as they were all obtained in FIFA-recognised tournaments. Indeed, Andrews scored the first goal of the current World Cup in a qualifier against Netherlands Antilles in March 2000 - a few months before joining Livvy.

Incidentally, the T&T FA’s address is in the wonderfully Scottish-sounding Dundonald Street in Port-Au-Spain.