For once I'm fairly confident against the fake Saints of at least taking a point.

Given we only took 2 points against them last season, I'd like to hopefully get a win at the first attempt!

Team I'd go with would be...

I really don't know how this one will go. St Johnstone will be strong favourites but we could maybe cause an upset. I'll go for a 1-1 draw.

Is wake not Suspended?

Cuthbert
Shimmin McManus Greacen
Finlayson Paartalu McGuffie McAlister
Masterton
Russell Weatherson

I would imagine Greacen will start, and possibly Colin Stewart also. No, not a joke.

i will be going to this game with a morton girl i no she takes me as my dad is workin and she is cuzins with jim mcallister so a hope a get braggin rights on the way home to stirling...come on yehh saintees in about them!!!

Never a fave place for us with the added edge of two unhappy ex players in the spine of the Ton team. Saints will struggle but hopefully come away with something.

You took both your points at home though but we won on the way to the Diddy Cup.

Still too early for Saints news, will be worth seeing if there will be an after affect from Stenny's pitch.

Holmes may get a start & try to bully your defence while i'm sure we'll practise lobbing incase Cuthbert starts.

I'm looking forward to this, purely because Morton vs St Johnstone post match threads on here are always the most entertaining of the season.

We drew with you 2-2 at Mcdermid.

Team sounds about right, with Stewart starting instead of Cuthbert.

So you did! So we won twice in the wild west last season!

This was the sort of game we drew at the start of last season that allowed Hamilton & Dundee to pull away. We did change that around in the 2nd half of the season.

we will go



Mclean

irvine mcafferty james new signing

hardie morris miller swankie


holmes milne









2.0 saints

McClean


Irvine James Ruti Sheerin




Millar Hardie Morris Swankie



Holmes Milne





A 3-2 for the saints.

Was it coincidence that we got Masterton from Clyde and he was dropped for the Clyde game?

Chris Millar will probably get a hard time from a section of the 'Ton fans. One thing's for sure though, he will do his job and Saints have nothing to worry about in terms of him not performing because it's against us.

I reckon we'll start with

Stewart
Greacen McManus Walker
McGuffie Masterton Paartalu McAlister
Russell Weatherson Newby

That's presuming Wake is suspended which I assume he is. Not like Salty to get things wrong though...

Confident we can win this one.

If Millar plays in the centre it'll be interesting to see how he copes with our physical yet not that creative central midfield.
I think we're going to badly miss Wake, as we no longer have a dircet out-ball when under pressure, although Saints do still look dodgy at the back so there's hope yet.
I realistically expect us to lose and will go for 2-1 Saints.

Craigs suspended I,m afraid....

I'm looking forward to our trip to Greenock this weekend ( except for the stand with leg room for dwarfs)...After our efforts at Stenny I would love to see Del go with Savo and Holmes from the start.They really looked a good partnership and although it was a weaker team we were playing I would like to think they would give any team trouble.Hopefully we will take a decent travelling support to Cappielow and I urge you all to get off your arses( cash and work permitting) and get down there to give the boys some vocal support.There seems to be contradictory news regarding the injured players with some papers stating they will all miss out and others saying they will all be fit and available????

As for team selection, I would like to see something like.....


Subs.McLean/Kelly,Ando,Jacko,Peaso,,McCaffery....

If Rustys not fit then Caff for him and Weatherstone to the bench
If Morris is out, then Sheerin to midfield and Ando to left back.....Or maybe we will have a new LB???

It,s all very complicated but if all are fit, I think that might be our strongest side...What do you think???????

No place for ....Weatherstone(shame) Samuel ( is he still injured???)Mooner(Still injured????).Craig (suspended)..

COME ON YOU SAINTS
COME ON YOU SAINTS FANS....

People maybe just waking up to the fact that Morton will be a force this season. 3-1 to the 'Ton.

Oh aye, Wake will be suspended.

Change him for Newby.

Prediction:

Cuthbert MOTM but helpless to prevent any of the SEVEN goals put past him.

Red card or two in an away win.

One of the opening games I'm looking forward to the most. I like going to Greenock as much as I like to mock their crappy facilities. The leg room isn't too bad for me because I'm quite short. Food tends to be quite good too. I think we'll play 4-4-2 but couldn't give personnel until Friday night or Saturday morning. Also wouldn't like to predict the result.

1-1

You wish......

i love you too bbz
ach, im taking a female to this one to try and get her interested, so a wee win would be pretty nice saints.

and id hedge my bets on holmes getting a start.

apart from that its really difficult to call.
will be much tighter than last season.

I'm sure the romantic setting of Cappielow will get her right in the mood.

If she's over 5 ft 5 then all she'll be intersted in is removing plastic from her legs.

i never said i was trying to
ive been seeing her for a while and she says she wants to give football a go.

so im educating her in the saintees of course.

her dads an airdrie fan and mothers a rangers fan. so the background isnt too great.

anyway aye. looking forward to it.

mortons crowd feeling the credit crunch yet?

That's one fucked up gene pool.

Not too sure how this one will go. Wakey will be a huge loss so a lot may depend on how we compensate. We'll be hard to beat this season but may lack the firepower to trouble Saintees on Saturday. Will be a great battle on the flank between Midge and McAlister.

Draw for me.

Nah, Unemployed people get in for concession prices and our giros will more than cover the £8 in.

Stewart

McManus - Greacen - Shimmin/Walker

McGuffie - Masterton - Paartalu - McAlister

Russell - Weatherson - Newby

We WILL win!

Looking at the proposed squads by opposite fans, on paper we "should" win. You have potentially two of our worst players from last season in your squad where we have one of your best players from last season in ours. Though saying all this, games are not played on paper and this will be a very tough game but one i am confident that we will win by one or two goals.

Bit harsh on McManus particularly SS?

Another draw on the cards for Morton this week.

1-1

This is a big test so early on in the season for us. St Johnstone are my favourites for the league this season, and certainly have the most strength in depth, but this is the time of the season where I'm most happy to play them. It seems they're still trying to work out their best 11 and formation, and the lack of a left back may be the weakness that we exploit if we are to find somewhere to hit them. That will probably require Kevin Finlayson playing well down the right, which is impossible to predict.

I would imagine that we'll move to a 3-5-2, with Masterton replacing the suspended Wake, which will weaken us, but he's probably our most creative central midfield player so it could have it's benefits. The lack of a physical presence up front will possibly be our downfall as Anderson and particularly Rutkiewicz are very physical defenders, so balls into the channels will most likely be our best hope, and this will only work if we get midfielders into the box. We've definitely got less pace than St Johnstone, so we'll need to be very careful not to get caught on the counter.

I reckon we'll line up something like this

--------------------------Stewart

--------------Greacen--McManus--Shimmin

Finlayson--Paartalu--Masterton--McGuffie--McAlister

-----------------------Russell--Newby

Recon if thats the case MMMH and Morris if he plays will be enough to do the enforcing and then let Miller play.

Not sure about this one we have not been great but have pulled results out. always worry about away trips to Morton, Ross County and Airdrie. These 3 awaydays if hystory counts for anything could costy us.

Still if the flapper is in goals 3 lobs will do nicely

It will be interesting to see who is in goal for Morton. There are weaknesses in Cuthbert's game that Saints know only too well about but then we rattled plenty of goals past Colin Stewart last season as well. All the strikers are on decent form so I expect McInnes to pick the ones he feels best suited to this game and that's between Holmes, Milne and MacDonald for me. McManus hates players who are good with their back to goal and with ball at feet like MacDonald and last season I remember noticing how weak in the air Greacen and Harding were for guys their size.

Key position for us is right back IMO as we need to stop McAllister putting crosses in the box, that's our big weakness so far. Need a big game from Irvine although I'd be tempted to copy Sam and play Anderson there if he was fit. Basically every goal we've lost right through pre-season has been from a ball delivered from wide, that apart we look solid enough.

Hard to pick a midfield without knowing who is available but Morris will play if he's fit. Like SingaporeSaint says, on paper we should win the match but it's never that easy. I am happy McInnes is more than a match for Irons though. Morton caused us problems last season despite not taking many points and like Shaggy says, it's not a ground we can really travel to full of confidence, although that's rarely a problem for me.

McManus?

Fck right off!

To be fair he was fifth choice centre half at the club! If it had not be for injuries he would not have played as many games as he did last season. And yes i thought he was one of our worst players last season.

Hope the team saturday is something like this:

McLean

Irvine James McCaff Sheerin/new signing
Millar Morris Hardie Swankie
Milne Holmes

However obviously a lot of that team depends on injuries.

I think we'll pick ourselves up from last weeks cheatfest and have a right go at this one...and win.

2-0 to Morton, Newby double.

same .. a rekon 2--0 morton or mibi 2-1 neby and russel and maybee millar for them.

Take it that means you'll be 'takin her UP the wee dublin end'?

Looks like not many Morton fans rate Saints!

Don't worry he'll do that all by himself. That will be the least of your worries on Saturday.

I think you'll win the league quite comfortably, I just don't see us losing this game for some reason but thats nothing more than a hunch. I already predicted we'd lose to Clyde and Stranraer though so my predictions means absolutely SFA.

I remember him putting in a cracking ball for your goal against us in February. Skinned Irvine and put it right on Weatherson's bonce!

Stenhousemuir knew the craic on Tuesday and I expect if Irons has stopped eating himself that he'll know that's our main weakness. Blessing I guess that Wake is suspended. Is Newby a big lad?

I'm with Port ton on this one. I rate St Johnstone as the favourites for the league this season but I can just see us picking up the points on saturday. Only a hunch, mind you.


McAlister can be highly frustrating, like any winger, but as he's a naturally right footed player being used on the left, his deliveries can be poor. On his day, however, he's as good as any wide player in the division.

Oh and Newby is 6 foot, but he's not a strong player and he's more about pace and intelligent runs than hold up play. Wake will be a big big loss for us (god I never expected to be saying that when he signed in January)

To win we have to outfight Saints in the centre of the park and take it from there.
The expected extra man in the centre helps matters and if Masterton/McGuffie can support the strikers then we can cause St Johnstone major problems.
Our play has to change on Saturday, - direct high balls into midfield for Paartalu/McGuffie/Masterton as we don't have wake to harass the centre halves.
Cappielow does appear on comparison to be a narrower pitch than McD so should limit the width St Johnstone would have with wide midfielders and full-backs overlapping.

looking forward to the game. i get the feeling we could all be in for a tasty goal fest on saturday.

however, is there plenty of parking near to the ground and secondly, is there any pubs close by?

I think there could be a few goals in this aswell.

Irons said in the greenock telegraph that we will go with the extra man in midfield or defence. That means either masterton in centre or someone in at right back who knows though!

Car park right behind sinclair street end. Norseman next to ground right next to car park!!