CIS CUP CLASH

Last updated : 28 October 2003 By Richard Jones

Saints are looking forward to a change to the routine tonight. With the favourites tag for the league comes expectation. This evening they will be relieved of such pressures as they go head to head with Dunfermline in the CIS Cup.



Simon Donnelly
was a winner in 1997 with Celtic and he looks forward to tonight:

PERTHSHIRE PICTURE AGENCY
"Every week we’re expected to win. We’ll go into this match as the underdogs, though, and it’s a chance to show how good we can be against an SPL team. We’ve got a lot of experienced players who have played at the top level at different times in their careers in our side and hopefully we’ll give a good account of ourselves. I think it should be quite an open game. It’s our aim to be playing against the likes of Dunfermline on a regular basis next season and this will gauge what stage we’re at just now."

However, the tough tussle over St.Mirren has it’s costs, with several Saints players less than 100% fit. Donnelly, Bernard, Mixu, Forsyth, Reilly and J.Robertson are all suffering from Saturday.

Billy Stark said:

"We might have to make one or two changes to the team, we have to think about next Saturday as well, but it will be the strongest side we’ve got available which takes the field. We’re clearly not the favourites for this match. Dunfermline are an established top six SPL team with a number of quality players. We’ll be tested far more defensively than usual but we’ll also get more room to play when we have the ball. We’ll see how we handle a different, better type of pressure. It will be a good test for us and hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy the underdog tag. I’m expecting the players to work hard and do everything to try to get us into the next round. They would enjoy the plaudits they would get for a win, so it’s worth having a real go."

Dunfermline also have some injury concerns. Skerla,Tod, Derek Young and striker Noel Hunt are unavailable for tonight. Pars manager Jimmy Calderwood had this to say:

"We know it’s going to be a difficult tie tomorrow, because they’ve got a lot of experienced players there. They are favourites to get promotion and we’re not in a position to underestimate anybody...we’re not good enough for that I’m confident though, because we’ve not lost to them since I’ve been here. It’s been a happy hunting ground for us up there. If everybody’s focused and the attitude is right hopefully our football will be enough. You could have bad luck on the night, but that’s the beauty of the cup. It’s a big game for St Johnstone. They’ve got nothing to lose and a lot of their boys will still be thinking they should be in the Premierleague, so they’ve got something to prove."


Meanwhile, Saints have rejected Brechin’s request to change the date of the league game again.

Dick Campbell admitted "I made a boob in agreeing to the Sunday. I didn’t realise Derek Soutar would be away. But it was an honest mistake and I really thought common sense would come into play. It’s annoying because we’ll now be disadvantaged as not only is Derek an important player for us, we don’t carry a third keeper which means we’ll have David Hay on the park and no back-up on the bench.’’

Stewart Duff spoke out on the matter:

"When we were approached to come to a decision on moving the game originally, Brechin wanted it to go ahead on the Sunday while our preference was for the Friday night. But after discussions within the club we agreed to their request and this was the second time we had accommodated them for a year ago Dick Campbell was going to be unavailable for a Bell’s Challenge Cup tie and again we gave Brechin a date of their choice. On this latest occasion we felt it should go ahead as agreed. It is just unfortunate they didn’t choose the midweek date at the time we were sorting things out."