Livi are first foe

Jun 17 2008

ST JOHNSTONE kick-off their new season on Saturday, August 2, with a home match against Livingston – and the Perth club will be hoping to pick up from where they left off in their last campaign.

Saints had a convincing 5-2 victory over the Lions in the final match of the season – and they were the only side they had a 100 per cent record against in the division.

After that they are away to Morton on August 9, while Dunfermline will provide tougher opposition at McDiarmid the following week.

Manager Derek McInnes knows it is imortant to get off to a positive start. But he’s taking nothing for granted.

He said: “We beat them convincingly four times last season and obviously being at home should give us added advantage.

“We want to get off to a good start, particularly in front of our home support, but Livi will obviously have a few new faces so we will have to be in the right frame of mind.

“We didn’t get the best of starts to our campaign last time – we had too many draws and were playing catch-up throughout the season.

“We are definitely looking to get off to a good start this time round.”

The manager’s quest to boost his pool of players continues, with a left-back his number one priority.

“We have made no secret that we want to strengthen the team in that area.

“We want to get the right person, however, and we won’t be making a signing just for the sake of it.”

A few players have been in for tests but the full squad will report back to McDiarmid on June 26, before travelling south the following day to start pre-season.

McInnes has spoken to Tony Mowbray at West Brom to organise an intensive week-long training programme.

“We'll have access to one of their pitches and we’ll be based at Wolverhampton University.

“We'll get a lot of work done and it means players won't spend hours travelling for pre-season training.

“We are eager to hit the ground running and hopefully lead from the front next time.

“After playing catch-up over the last three years we'd like to be setting the pace.”