The Andy Lochhead column. . .

THE king of mind games - Alex Ferguson - was in town this week and it was good to catch up.

I say that having been informed by Sir Alex that I played alongside him a boy, even though I didn't know it.

On Tuesday, as we chatted at Stan's testimonial, Alex informed me we played together in the same Drumchapel Amateurs side near Glasgow as teenagers.

This time, I'm pretty sure Alex was telling the truth, although he's made a name for himself at Manchester United by playing all sorts of games with opposing players and managers.

But I reckon Dave Jones could run Sir Alex close in that department.

I met the Wolves manager on Tuesday as I stood on the ninth tee at Stan's golf day, throwing out beer and pies when the players came around.

Dave came up and as we chatted and I told him I did a column for the local newspaper, I casually added I hoped to see him again on Saturday.

But the first thing he said was: "That's if I have a side Andy". He told me about all his injured players, six more that were away on international duty this week and how everything depended on how they regrouped today.

It will be interesting to see what side he puts out at 3pm tomorrow because I think Dave was probably laying it on with a trowel in the hope the news got back to Steve Cotterill.

Alex remains the king of the mind games though. There are countless stories of how he has tried to hoodwink opposing managers down the years by going on the defensive, or putting fictional feelers out.

It seems to be a modern day thing now. In my day, the only way you ever read anything about the game was in your own local newspaper, whereas now, if Sir Alex sneezes it's on Sky Sports News within minutes.

Managers these days are looking for any advantage they can get and if an opposing team takes the bait on something you said, that can make all the difference.

So rest assured, I'll be paying the Wolves team a little extra attention tomorrow - just in case!