St johnstone v Celtic : Match Preview : Tommy’s Turnaround

Yokerbhoy looks at todays game, a Scottish cup quarter final to see who joins Aberdeen, Hearts and hibernian in the semi finals. 

 With Steven MacLean unable to inspire his charges to a win at Tynecastle yesterday, “rangers ” have exted the competition, and that means all the other clubs will get a lift and that wee bit extra belief that it could be their year…

After our cowboy circus European exit we make the journey to the picturesque city of Perth as the Bhoys play an away tie in the Scottish Cup for the third time on the trot to take on recent hun-tamers St Johnstone. The Perth Saints, who are enjoying a pretty good run of form at the minute, have only won this competition once in their entire history. This feat was very recent as it was only six years ago when they overcame Tayside rivals Dundee United 2-0 in ‘la Gran Final’.

Going back further in history, probably the best ever St Johnstone team was Willie Ormond’s from the late 60’s to the early 70’s – a period in which they boasted the talents of John Lambie, Henry Hall, John Connolly, Alex ‘Doddie the Dobber’ MacDonald and Jim Pearson. At the height of their success they finished third in the top division and performed a giant-killing act by dumping the mighty Hamburg SV out of the UEFA Cup.

The current side are on the crest of a wave these days since Tommy Wright and his boys have pulled off an impressive recovery after a truly dreadful start to their season, in which they were knocked out of the league cup at the group stage by teams from inferior divisions and also found themselves languishing at the foot of the table for a good number of weeks.

Evidently weakened initially by the loss of defender and ex-skipper Joe Shaughnessy as well as the long-term injury to midfield ace and greyhound racing expert Murray ‘Muz’ Davidson, the Taysiders have managed to string some fine results together (they’ve lost only once in the last seven games and just twice in the last thirteen) and, from the death throes of almost inevitable relegation, they now find themselves challenging along with Kilmarnock and others for a place in the top six before the league split takes place.

One of their biggest potential weaknesses, however, is their goalie Zander Clark, whose form has been erratic to say the least. He’s a decent enough shot stopper but can often be woefully hesitant and flappy (does that word exist?) when it comes to cross balls. Lacking in confidence at times, he fluffs quite a few straightforward catches and drops a few clangers, so that’s something we want to capitalise on.

Our own Tony Ralston hasn’t featured as frequently for Saints as he would have liked (more often than not he’s been bench-warming) this season but put in a decent shift against the orcs last Sunday – well, it was a bit of a mixed performance really with some timely tackles as well as a fair sprinkling of clumsy errors. We already know what he’s like. Obviously he won’t enter the equation, which means that young skipper Jason Kerr, who has been in excellent form recently, will probably slot in there although Drey Wright might also be considered for that role. Kerr is equally comfortable playing at RB or as a centre back. He has had exceptionally good comminication with fellow defender Jamie McCart, an ex-Celtic youth player and very solid performer. When Kerr is moved out to RB, Liam Gordon normally slots into the other CD role, where he has been quite competent over the piece. The remaining defensive position at LB had previously been covered by Englishman Scott Tanser but he has been recently converted into a wide midfielder, where his overall performances have been far more consistent and effective although he has been an unused sub for the last few games. (The poor guy used to have very nasty recurring nightmares about James Forrest ripping him a new one time and time again). The position has since been filled by Callum Booth, who had done a decent enough job there so far without being in any way exceptional.

Perth-born Canadian international David Wotherspoon is a creative central midfielder (although he has also been known to play out wide) for the Blues, a player who links up well with the front men and can provide defence-splitting through balls. He is accompanied by newly signed loanee from Bournmouth Matt Butcher, who is a strong competitive presence, robust tackler and a player that never  hides. He’s also often slow to react and a bit rash in his challenges at times. Ali McCann, a converted full back, is playing consistently well as a tricky and tenatious right-sided midfielder while Drey Wright provides his full back with good defensive cover and is reasonably precise and effective coming forward but never seems to get his name on the scoresheet. He also suffered a horror cruciate ligament injury not so long ago.

It’s up front where Saints have improved most lately and that’s largely down to the efforts of two players in particular. The young Blackburn lad with  Scottish parentage Callum Hendry has been playing out of his skin and his superhuman efforts are now being rewarded with frequent goals. The livewire striker’s work rate is quite unbelievable and a great understanding has evolved between him and fellow striker Stevie May, enjoying his second term at McDiarmid Park. May looks a different player at the moment compared to last season’s flop at Aberdeen and has netted 5 times in the last 9 games. He seems to have regained his confidence of old and appears to have found new energy. I fully believe that both will start against us on Sunday. Their previous main striker, nº9 Chris Kane is a far cry from his namesake Harry as he has only managed to notch up one league goal so far during this campaign. He’s a hard worker and a real tryer but it just hasn’t been happening for him. The recent sale of winger Matty Kennedy to the sheep doesn’t appear to have caused any kind of serious weakness to the current side.

St Johnstone fought very well in last weekend’s home league meeting with Sevco to come away with a draw (admittedly they were given a huge helping hand by that bombscare clown Katic while Goldson wasn’t much better) and it was only when the Saints sat back and defended that the orcs looked dangerous (I still can’t believe their freak qualification against Braga). The best anecdote from that game was the pre-match comment from their numpty assistant manager Gary McAllister who was still gloating after their fightback against Braga in the Europa League a few days before at Ibrokes. The havering halfwit dribbled: “If we repeat that level of performance and at the speed we played at in a domestic game, then a domestic game should be an easy run out”. Arrogant or what? After that stupid Braga brag I’d have enjoyed seeing the expression on his baldy coupon as May slammed in the equaliser.

Tommy Wright deserves a great deal of respect for how he’s completely changed the shape of things at his club over the past three months. He really must have been inches away from getting the sack around the end of last October as the situation seemed pretty hopeless but somehow he’s come up with a formula that’s restored belief, confidence and pride in the players as he’s got them back to playing at the trademark level of his sides in recent seasons, i.e. a smallish club competing aggressively and punching well above their weight, finishing up in the top six year after year and even qualifying for Europe. Kudos to the man who once again has demonstrated his ability to fight his way out of a tight corner, instill a feel good factor and a high level of motivation among his playing staff and craft a side that is capable of playing some good football, fiercely competing to the bitter end and is interesting to watch due to their unpredictable qualities.

He’s also a good tactician who isn’t afraid to change his formations, often during the course of a game when he deems it necessary and has recently produced good results and performances using varying formations such as 3-5-2, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1.

I’ve got a hunch he’ll line up in more or less the same way (4-4-2) as he did last weekend against the toerags with the obvious exclusion of Ralston. Loanee hun Jason Holt could also feature but is more likely to be left on the bench. Here we go:

Clark

Kerr                             McCart                                    Gordon                        Booth

McCann                      Wotherspoon                           Butcher                        Wright

May                                         Hendry

Subs: Parish, Tanser, Craig, Swanson, Holt, O’Halloran, Kane

There’s something about St Johnstone’s style of play that seems to suit us with the stats from recent encounters with the Perth outfit speaking for themselves:

Aggregate score over last 3 meetings between the two clubs:

Celtic 15 St Johnstone 0

Aggregate score over last 6 meetings between the two clubs:

Celtic 25 St Johnstone 0 

Previous statistics shouldn’t necessarily have too much bearing on forthcoming fixtures so I just thought I’d put that in to cheer you all up. Seriously though, it’s only natural that our lads will feel more comfortable playing against certain sides more than others of similar ability. That’s just part of football and it’s also because St Johnstone at least make an attempt to play the beautiful game.

Due to the events of the other night, I’m sad to say that this Scottish Cup tie has become a high pressure game (probably far more than it really needs to be) as another slip up would constitute a major crisis in the eyes of many. Personally, I’m not over-excited about this competition this season (much as I’d like us to win it and stop the zombies from picking up their first ever major trophy) as I have far more interest in us finishing the remaining league campaign on a high with a consistent run of good form and hopefully an improvement as regards preparation for the following season. Some of our youngsters from the development squad have been in dazzling form and deserve a chance to shine in the first team, at least once we have the league title practically in the bag.

I think we definitely have to change back to 3-5-2 on Sunday as it has been working a treat for us at domestic level. Edouard is a lot less effective when isolated as a single striker while his understanding with Griffiths has been coming on leaps and bounds, so it’s vital to nurture this further.

Christie is certain to return and should add some much needed energy and mobility to both our midfield and attacking options while I expect to see Rogic (whose Celtic future has been cast into serious doubt) dropped to the bench. Should Broonie still be suffering from that calf injury, he might be included in the initial line-up, in which case he’d be under a lot of pressure to produce a noteworthy performance. Meanwhile, the bald-headed Oli Ntcham is unlikely to be risked.

In defence I’d like to see Simunovic dropped (I can’t see him continuing with us next season to be honest so thanks for the Kenny Miller and Billy McNeil moments Jozo) with young Stephen Welsh being drafted in. Unfortunately I don’t see this happening but what the fuck, I’m going to pick him anyway. Maybe Bitton will get the nod, which would at least be preferable to Jozo (2 games in 3 days would be serious overkill for the Bosnian). There’s a  chance young Jeremy Frimpong could feature as a right wingback in preference to Forrest although I’ll be sticking with wee Jamesie for this one as McDiarmid is one of his favourite hunting grounds.

The strong tendency to bounce back after a calamity in a crucial game is a sequence that is likely to continue so I can’t really see anything other than a decent performance and a comfortable win on Sunday with our players extremely eager to make amends. A gritty attitude and persistent attempts to work their suspect goalkeeper Clark and expose their weaker defensive left flank should pay dividends and set us up for the semis.

A simplified view of the big picture regarding where our team stands now is that we are adequately equipped to produce the necessary goods and continue to be the dominant force in Scottish football for the time being but, at the same time, we are way short of having the required level to make serious inroads when it comes to European competition. Some major restructuring, especially in defence, would be required in the close season but I won’t be holding my breath. I admit that last summer’s transfer window was encouraging and well-handled but 5 million has been spent in January on two players who haven’t even remotely threatened to break into the starting XI. I hope they can prove me wrong and I’d like to see one or both feature as a sub against the Saints.

 My main hopes on the playing side right now are for a couple of our bright youngsters to make a breakthrough into the first team within the next few months (Afolabi, O’Connor, Dembele etc), as their fresh input could positively altar the dynamic, for Frimpong to kick on and improve his defensive game and also for the big Israeli Hatem to regain full fitness and provide a lot more stability to our defence. 

It’d be nice to see a professional performance with plenty of flair and a few goals to put the smiles back on our faces in this cup tie.

Forster

Welsh Jullien Ajer

Forrest Brown Christie McGregor Taylor

Griffiths Edouard

Subs: Bain, Frimpong, Bitton, Soro, Henderson, Arzani, Klimala

Prediction: Saints 0 Celts 3 (Griffiths, Forrest, Edouard)