Saints prepare for Dons visit

Feb 11 2011 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

DEREK McInnes yesterday revealed midweek cup hero Liam Craig was benched after fears he wouldn’t see through 90 minutes on a heavy McDiarmid Park.

The midfielder, who has been nursing a calf strain, was pitched in against Partick Thistle at half-time and secured the Perth club’s progress to the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup with a spectacular long range strike.

Now, he is set to retain his place for tomorrow’s visit from top six spot rivals Aberdeen.

McInnes said: “We were wary of playing Liam, but I’m glad he made such an impact when he came on.”

The manager, who issued a special thank-you to groundstaff and volunteers who ensured the Jags tie went ahead at the third time of asking, lavished praise on a squad which is pressing for top six status and is among the last eight contenders for cup glory.

He said: “The players deserve huge credit for the win over Partick. Their schedule has been badly disrupted and we only heard the game was going ahead at lunchtime.

“We have posted five clean sheets in our last five home matches and that is worthy of recognition. The players are taking confidence from it and they should be proud of a record like that.

“Our defending has been organised, determined and aggressive. There is room for improvement but we are in pretty good shape.”

McInnes flagged-up the hard graft which went into getting the green light for the cup tie.

He said: “It was a huge effort to get the game on and that should be recognised and appreciated. I’m just glad all the hard work by the ground staff and others paid off and they were rewarded with a win.”

Long-term problems with the Perth pitch mean running repairs are purely cosmetic. It took another pounding this week and Aberdeen are in town tomorrow. It will be the summer before the underlying problems can be addressed.

McInnes could be tempted to freshen-up his side, although there is a free midweek looming to give players a chance to recharge the batteries. Cup-tied loan signing Arvydas Novikovas rejoins the squad.

Goalscorer Craig yesterday revealed his strike was prompted by the state of the McDiarmid surface.

He said: “It's not a pitch for running or passing on so I thought I might as well shoot. I caught the keeper by surprise and luckily it went in.

“A lot has been said about the pitch but we know what to expect from it. It's not going to be nice football and it has disrupted us a bit.

“It's not easy to get the ball down and pass it, which is the way we want to play. But in the last few weeks we have learned how to adapt to it so maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

Looking forward to the Dons clash, Craig recalled that a win at Pittodrie had kick-started the Perth campaign.

“When you look back to the 1-0 win up at Aberdeen 12 or 13 games ago that was a turning point for us. Since then we have only lost twice – once at Parkhead and the other at Tynecastle. That's a decent record and we want to keep it going.

“We've had five clean sheets in a row at home. We were leaking goals in October so we knew something had to be done. I think everyone just pulled together, worked hard and took pride in a clean sheet.

“Michael Duberry and Steven Anderson have been unbelievable in the last six or seven weeks.

“But everyone is doing their best to avoid losing goals and with Collin Samuel and Stevie May up front we're causing teams problems.

“I want to start scoring more. Last season everyone was chipping in with goals but this season we have not been doing it as much.

“Murray Davidson and I both scored against Partick and I'd love to keep that going because you want it spread around the team.”

FORMER Saints player Josh Falkingham yesterday received the Irn-Bru Phenomenal young player of the month award for his performances at Arbroath under Paul Sheerin.