Saints v Celtic Preview

Last updated : 11 November 2006 By Stuart Gillespie
It's not an impressive record regardless of how you look at it. No wins since 1989/90, no points or goals since 1991/92. Whilst we haven't been in the top flight for much of that time, we have played at least nine games against Celtic since being relegated in 1992.

Being brutally honest, there's not much chance of things changing much tomorrow either. That's not good, as Dundee United seem to have found a bit of form of late and the blue half of the Old Firm are being more than helpful towards teams fighting relegation.

John Sutton is the only Saints player scoring goals at the moment, but his confidence will surely have taken a dent after his penalty miss last week. We're at our most dangerous from crosses into the box, but with the likes of Bobo Balde and Stephen McManus likely to play it's hard to see them failing to deal with most things we can throw at them. It's a game crying out for someone like Stewart Kean or Mark Corcoran to start, as pace could cause the SPL champions a lot of problems at the back.

Sadly, it's likely to be the same team that played last week, with Billy Mehmet still up front and thus the long ball. Nothing wrong with that, however I don't think it will be that effective against Celtic. Elsewhere in the side, John Potter may return to the starting line up now that he is fully fit, as is Ian Maxwell. In fact, as things stand, we have no injury problems. Brilliant!

Celtic do have a few injury problems, however, and it's unlikely that Paul Telfer will play. This is a bit of a blow to Saints as he's generally a bit useless. However, even if he did play Celtic would still be expected to overwhelm us with the likes of Kenny Miller and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (what a great name).

The SPL champions are on course to make it two in a row this season and are already miles ahead of Hearts - who are self destructing as per usual - and Rangers. PaddyPower are already paying out to those who backed the Bhoys at the start of the season and it's sadly unlikely anything will happen tomorrow that makes them regret their decision.