In the few games I have saw him he has looked a very good player and scored a cracking goal on saturday.Queens must have some squad if he couldn,t get a game,I for one am delighted to have him at dens.We now have 2 very capable full backs and when we get our central defenders back we will be hard to break down.

yeah it was a superb finish for his goal! looks like corners are something the boys have been working on! hopefully

only taking a few years then!

Saw Eric play against Wolves and Alloa and I have been very impressed. Couldnt make Saturday unfortunately, but he could be our best player this year.

Yeah him or malone,mckeown,douglas,cameron,curier,gilhaney or mcmenamin.
ps or possibly mckenzie or mchale.

or Daquin...................................Nah Ive took that too far!

The sole reason Eric was dropped from the qos team was that the manager found out he had signed a pre contract with Dundee.He was a very silky player for queens and although still a very good player,I reckon we have had his best years.

Seen Eric against Aberdeen, Bradford, Wolves, Alloa and Ross County. He has been very consistent and looks to be an excellent player.

I don't think that Eric has been the same player since he was injured. Before that injury he was the best right back in the league. Queens have indeed had the best years of Eric, but his replacement in Barr is a much better player

So, how many of his Dundee performances have you seen, exactly?

None.

But my point about him not being the player he was still stands

When given time on the ball Eric is indeed a classy player but if he comes up against a player with skill that likes to run at him he is hopeless.
I can never understand why more teams don't try this against him,he's probably the slowest player in the league.

You realise we have Jim Lauchlan too?

I think Paton looks better going forward than defending and Strachen gave him problems in the first half. However there's no doubt he's been impressive for us so far and you have to remember we had Worrell at right-back this time last season.

This doesn't match up with what I've seen of him so far for Dundee, I have to say. I particularly noticed his willingness to get up the right wing at Victoria Park on Saturday, but sprinting back when possession was lost at a fair lick, for the entire game. We've yet to see him against a top jinky winger, and you may be right. Or he may be practising with Gilhaney...

It could be that a new team means a new lease of life. It could be he'll burnt out in two weeks. It could mean that he's just had a good few weeks recently. It could be we should just wait and see. I'm happy with him so far.

Not sure that is true TBH. I`m sure SD can clarify this and in fact I`m fairly sure he has previously.
Eric was an excellent player with us and gave us great service. He does struggle a bit against a really pacy winger but is an excellent full back for all that. Eric has more skill than Ryan McCann but is less ruthless. McCann tended to let man or ball past but not both. McCann is also one of the best players I`ve seen in terms of fitness and engine to get back and forward throughout the 90 miniutes. I`m sure the change of club will do Eric the world of good and he`ll be an excellent player for Dundee. Good luck to the guy.
Edited to add that I`m farly sure Eric scored a goal from (near enough) his own half for QOS away to Ross County. Must be an essential skill for QOS right backs.

As I have said can only go on what I have saw(3 friendlies and 1 league game)and he has been excellent.It could be a new club has given him a new lease of life and although not to pacy he is an intellegent player.I think he is a great signing and fits into our team a treat.Its funny how our 2nd choice left back has ended up in the spl and queens 2nd choice right back has ended up at one of the main contenders for our league,just goes to show its a squad game.

I doubt that very much.

You would.

Barr looks promising but too soon to say he is better than Eric in my view.

I said that the first time I saw him play for us. I dont think he's better than Paton was at his best, but I do think he's better than last seasons Paton.

The Eric Paton of a couple of years ago was the type of player you'd pay money to go and watch, an outstanding footballer. Barr on the other hand looks like he could turn out to be a lot more effective at this level (he maybe needs to work on his crossing) but without the obvious Paton panache.

Paton was dropped for the Cup tie against Linlithgow a few days before he signed a pre-contract with Dundee. He was replaced by the untried McCann who made his debut in that game.
We can all speculate whether Chisholm had got wind of his decision to leave and therefore left him out. Only Chisholm could tell you for sure.
It does seem a huge coincidence that a player who was more or less an ever-present was dropped for a game where it didn't really matter who we played at full-back and with no knowledge of whether McCann was actually better anyway. Chishom must be a genius if he could determine from a couple of days training that McCann, essentially a midfield player, would be better than Paton at right back. It wasn't as if Paton had been so poor it was vital he should be replaced. He might not have been at his very best, but he was still ok. Whether McCann turned out to be better is a matter of opinion. It is just surprising that Paton was dropped when it wasn't the most pressing issue with the team at that time. I don't remember anybody at the time suggesting Paton shouldn't be playing.

Agreed. Im a huge fan of Patons and when he was on top form for us he was outstanding. As someone else mentioned, he never quite regained that form after his illness


I have to say Im inclined to agree with you. Paton wasnt back to his best, but he was playing as well as he had done since the illness when he was dropped.

I guess it could have been a coincidence. He could have been dropped to give him a rest and then not reinstated once he'd signed the pre-contract, I suppose.

Paton two or three years ago was an outstanding footballer. Not saying Dundee have a bad player, he is just not as good as he was. Maybe the new club will give him a new lease of life and he can get back to what he was, one of the best right backs in the division. Never rated him in midfield, before or after the conversion to RB.

Probably the signing our fans went on about the least but has been a big hit with the fans. Hopefully once the team is fit he'll make that place his own.

why? barr was playing in the spl for gretna last season and is considerably younger, just cos paton plays for dundee doesnt mean he is better, we should know we have seen more of paton than dundee fans have.

To be fair it could be argued that we`ve seen almost as much of Barr as the Dundee fans have of Paton. As I said earlier too soon to judge. That being so my initial impression of Barr is that he will be a superb signing for us but time will tell.

I agree with Hiro 100%.In the games i have seen Craig Barr i would say he is most definately a more natural right back than Eric Paton ever was.Not as skillful but far more effective.
Eric is a not very good midfielder, who through default has ended up as a right back.

Eric Paton oozes class and I was very sad to see him leave Palmerston. He may not be quite as good as he was a few seasons ago, but I am sure Dundee fans will continue to be impressed. We've just been very fortunate with right backs over the past few months: Paton, McCann and Barr are all good players at this level. Craig Reid also looks useful at right back.

Paton probably has a better first touch than most players in Div 1,not just full-backs.
As one Dundee poster has already noticed he is better going forward than defending.
I'm happy enough with his replacement at Palmerston however.Barr is better defensively but also is willing to get forward at every opportunity.He also has a handy 'long throw' which I don't think we have exploited as much as we could.
Good luck to Eric however he did great service for us.

Eric was by far my favourite player a couple of seasons ago. You could argue his first touch is second to none in this league (possibly Dobbie!!!). We have however had his best years, that's not to say he will be bad with Dundee, I'm pretty sure he will do a great job for them, and if that's the case the Dee fan's will wish they had signed him a long time ago as he would have been even better 2/3 years before.

On the arguement between Barr and Paton. I would have liked Paton to have stayed but if I had the choice I would have taken Barr anyway. The reason for this is that he is yound, has had some SPL experience and looks to have great potential. Paton is going the other way IMO. I'm willing to stick my neck out and say that in a couple of years QoS fans will have forgotten all about Paton due to Barr being so good. (that is of course if Barr is still with us!)

Im sure Eric will prove to be a very good signing for Dundee.
I was sorry to see him sign the pre-contract and spend the latter part of last season out of the team (most of the time).
He was always one of our most consistent performers and I am sorry he decided to move on.
Good luck Eric.....but hope we finish above you in the league come May.

Doesn't matter how often that keeps getting repeated, it's still simply not true.


Paton was also left out of the league game at Morton that followed that Linlithgow game before anyone at Palmerston had any idea he was signing a pre-contract with Dundee.

He was dropped. The pre-contract probably eliminated any chance of him getting back in (though McCann's form would most likely have done that anyway) but it had absolutely zero relevance to his being left out in the first place.


I really don't agree with that. I don't think Eric defended that well in the first half of last season. I'm delighted if he's doing so now though. A few years ago he was as good as any right back in this division and he's a really good guy. I wish him all the best with Dundee except when he's playing us.

This Barr fella has obviously made a good impression. Have to look out for him.

Really? So when would you say he played better, since recovering from the illness? I totally agree he wasnt back to anywhere near his best.

We'll just need to wait for Chisholm's book, I'm going straight to the chapter "Why I changed tactics halfway through the season", should be good reading.

So, Chisholm dropped Paton because he didn't think he was any good. And Paton then signed for a team who were second in the league and, at the time, about 30 odd points ahead of us. Must be one of the few times a player hasn't been good enough for a team in relegation bother (at the time) but good enough for one seeking promotion.
Chisholm also knew McCann would be better at full-back than Paton, having watched Paton for about a year and having seen McCann at full-back - how many times?
Paton played for us for years as a full-back, yet Chisholm knew that somebody with less experience of that position would be better. So, he signed him. And, he was so confident of McCann's ability, he gave him a contract for four months.
Did Chisholm really think Paton was that bad?

Just out of interest, what was his illness?

Eric Paton is a class footballer with a great first touch and fantastic technique for a player at this level and if he had an extra yard of pace could have been a top player . I too believe he was best going forward and although he reads the game well was always suspect defensively again because of his lack of pace but also not great in the air. When he scores it was usually a superb hit and cant remember him scoring many inside the box. A great weapon to have in your side.
I was dissapointed when he signed for dundee but wish him the very best as he was a great servant to Queens always reliable and a crowd favorite from the first game he played .A change of scene will maybe do him good . Dundee have signed a fine player ..Good luck Eric .

Chisholm didn't sign McCann for full back, he signed him as cover for the injured Scally. That he turned out to be a revelation when tried at full back was a bonus. And McCann signed for four months partly because he was initially only coming in to cover Scally / MacFarlane and partly because he made it clear from the word go that he wanted to go back to England this season if he could find a club.

I really don't want to start picking up individual defensive errors from last season, it's pointless, but I do think it was very apparent very quickly that when two more physical full backs in McCann and Harris came into the side the danger from other teams coming down the wings was enormously reduced. Both were also much better in the air than the player they replaced. I think pretty much everyone accepts Paton wasn't a natural defender and was often exposed by pacey wingers (Swankie in particular crucified him a few times which makes Dundee moving for him all the more surprising). I really don't see why it's such an unbelievable proposition that the manager might have noticed the same thing and attempted to address it? Eric had other attributes though, his ability to start some really good attacking moves from full back being the obvious one. McCann didn't have the natural ability on the ball but was quicker and had a better engine. You pays your money you takes your choice.

so far Eric Paton has been pretty solid at the back but is obvious to see he is great going forward - is first touch is second to none

Douglas Gilhaney Cameron and Curier where the signings that were most talked about but Paton looks to be a real find

another good piece of business from Alex Rae

So, basically Chisholm didn't think Paton was any use defensively, replaced him with an untried full-back (who was signed as a midfielder and whom Chisholm didn't know whether or not he could play at full-back). Paton, having been duly dropped for a game against Linlithgow (did they have a pacey left winger liable to embarrass him?) then signed a pre-contract with Dundee within a week or so of being dropped.
Luckily, McCann turned out to be all right.
And they all lived happily ever after.

Indeed they did.