Well onwards and upwards.Another tough road trip down to Dumfries this week where we may find out if our season is really getting back on track.Queens have an excellent home record so far this term and our form is patchy at best.I believe personally that if we can take our game forwards from the County victory then we will come away with something. Queens have only managed 1 goal in their last three games which is why I,m plumping for a 2-1 Saints win.

I hope Del sticks with the 4-5-1 formation and it would be great to field the same starting 11 for the 2nd game on the trot.I also hope that having scored a couple of goals at Ross, Colin Samuel will use this as a confidence booster and go on to much greater things and become as prolific a scorer as Jason Scotland became for Saints.

This is BIG game for both teams if either are to be considered true title contenders but hey it would seem they're all tough games in this seasons topsy turvy first division....

Come on you Saints......................................................

Nothing to beat being early.
I will go expecting a win but as you say we are not converting chances into goals at the moment.
It will be ironic if Weatherson comes back to haunt you for this one.

Not Ironic................Just normal ..And don,t forget the Dobster either....

2 pumpings in a row be afraid, be very afraid.

No I will not.

Nice and early.
With a fit O'Connor, I'd be looking for the win. Without him, I'd settle for another result like yesterday's.

I'm dead keen that we do well over the next couple of fixtures though, so that we can end the quarter with a home game against Livingston and the chance of going top.
It could be like the ICT game of 2003 - a truly memorable one for Queens fans, even if the progress wasn't remotely sustained.

Behave, Ghostie!

It's not even Monday. Some of us have not recovered from the shock of yesterday yet!

His knee is like a balloon just now after the tidy up op but he hopes to be back playing in 3-4 weeks time

Great news if true. Early but I might as well reply. We're at home so 3 points should not be a big ask. Dobbie will have a good game as he normally does against Saints.

If QoS win - 2-0

If Saints win 1-0

Saturday, late afternoon, samuel nets his second, looks up and says NEXT..

What if it's a draw?

8-8?

QoS 1-4 St Johnstone....

Loving your work sir! I've been doing the same prediction in your absence for a couple of games

I'll come back to the actual pre-match banter nearer the game, I'm still reading about Saturday yet

We won't have either Peter McDonald or Savo Milne in the squad for the game as they were both sent off tonight in a 3-0 reverse against Cowdenbeath in the reserve league cup.

Excellent work Kuato.

As said elsewhere, I still think Queens are worse off than us with Tosh's suspension coming on top of Adams' injury. MacDonald hasn't been in the matchday squad since the defeat at Firhill whilst Milne hasn't started the last three matches. The two players are worse off for missing out than the team IMO.

exactly, in my opinion we have more than adequate cover with swankie, jackson, holmes and samuel. even the young stephen reynolds with a bench place if extreme desperation sets in.

oh, and prediction? a hopeful 2-1 away win for saints, although i can feel a 2-3 loss.

You are right to point to the losses of Tosh and Adams for Saturday's match. It will be interesting to see who partners MacFarlane in the heart of midfield. Chisholm has a few options, though none are perfect: Simmons, Robertson and Burns are possibilities. However, our greatest loss is that of Sean O'Connor. I don't know if either of Parratt or Harris will be fit, though we could really do with the latter in particular.

Though the above sounds pessimistic, we can still put a decent side on the pitch. Perhaps:
Bell
Barr Sives Thomson Harris
Weatherston Burns MacFarlane McQuilken
Dobbie Kean

No doubt, my guesswork will be way off!

ah! one i forgot, weatherston WILL score.

Early days but if I had to guess at our side, I don't think it will change from Saturday past:

Main

Irvine - Rutkiewicz - McCaffrey - Anderson

Swankie - Millar - Hardie - Sheerin - Craig

Samuel

Subbies: McLean, McKoy, Moon, Jackson, Holmes.

Usually whenever we face another side, I claim the players we are missing are more vital to us (than any opposition players ruled out) but even allowing for the absence of James and Morris, I think Queens are at least as badly off as us with the unavailability of Tosh and O'Connor. Still expect us to get beaten though.

That looks a decent side with a particularly strong midfield. However, I think Weatherston would enjoy playing against your makeshift left back!

i really hope main plays, everytime iv seen him play he has been rank

Although more of a centre half, I'm confident Anderson will handle Weatherston fine.

Will Chisholm go again for a 3-5-2 formation as he did against Morton?
If he does we might have a line-up of :

Bell

JT Barr Sives


McGowan Burns McFarlane McQuilken Weatherston


Dobbie Kean

Not been following football very long then, have you.

Think its a good time for us to be heading down to play QOS this weekend.

Our tails have got to be up after a win at a notoriously difficult place for us and the fact that QOS seem to be toiling to find the net and suffering a few suspensions and injuries.

My biggest fear is Weatherston will run riot (here is hoping we put a clause in the transfer not allowing him to play against us this season )

Think it will be 2-1 saints. Ruti and Millar.

You don't need to worry too much about Weatherston. He only gets half an hour on the pitch at the most. I'd play him instead of Kean, but Chisholm won't. He prefers him on the left, when he isn't on the bench.
Incidentally, is Tosh definitely suspended? I thought it wasn't an automatic ban for two yellows?

what i should of said is that everytime iv seen him play against queens he hasnt been very good, obviously iv not seen him play against other sides. just my opinion...

Weatherston is too light IMO to be a consistent starter in the first division. He just gets bullied by centre halves up front and his end product isn't good enough to be a winger IMO.

First game I'll see since the Firhill debacle, so hopefully a much better performance than then.

I can't see the game being scoreless. I'll go for a 2-2 draw or a 3-2 win either way.

i,ll be at my first match this season

its the closest first division Saints match to me, so i,ll be there, anybody fancies a pint in the social club under the stand before the game let me know !! i,ll have my Surridge sports Saints baseball cap on

A lot of people have said that about Paul Burns for long enough but he has managed to start regularly and to perform.I for one would like to see the boy get a few starts for Queens rather than appearances from the bench.

Christ, I'm outa here ... it aint rock 'n'' roll (maybe unless it's Louden Wainright's son). And ok, Oasias has their heart in the right place ...

I think the loss of O'Connor, Harris and Arbuckle will be really apparent tomorrow..Queens have been a bit lucky in the last couple of league games (Ross County- scraped a win, Morton last week scraped a draw)

I reckon the best we can hope for is a draw to be honest....

Need to stop punting the high balls up the park that Sean is used to- he ain't there, so keep the ball on the ground!!



I hope I'm proved wrong though (wouldn't be the first time)

I would certainly HOPE it's a good time for you to be heading down to Dumfreeze ... you're down on the fixture list to play them tomorrow!  So you better get cracking!

Since i missed last weeks game I will see the 4-5-1 in action this week which is exciting. I barely remember Saints ever playing this system so it will be good to see what role they are all playing. I'm glad Samuel had got some more goals, he has looked very dangerous from the start of the season and now he is bagging some goals for his troubles.

For anyone at the game last week, in the middle of midfield, who was holding and who was getting forward?

Not sure how confident to be. Last week was the first game i missed, but from the sounds of it we still werent great and had to scrap a bit. However, in a way thats an encouraging sign because we did not look like a side capable of doing that against Dunfermline and Partick. I fully expect the same line up from last week to start. Which i believe was

Main
Irvine ruti mccaff anderson
Swankie Hardie Millar Sheerin Craig
Samual


Not sure if james + morris ready for bench yet?

I would take a scrappy one-nil right now. Hopefully qos being weaker will help. O'Connor is a big loss as he always seems to give us a hard time. Nice to take three points to set us up for next week

No one really, the three (Millar, Hardie, Sheerin) played pretty flat, getting behind the ball when County had it. Millar made his trademark bursts forward to support but I wouldn't say he was playing any further forward than the other two.

First time I remember using this system since the horror days towards the end of Clark's reign when we went to places like Parkhead aiming to only lose by a couple of goals. Sturrock used it effectively though in our first season back up with O'Boyle up top and Preston and O'Neil working the flanks.

Whilst I'm happy that Queens will be without O'Connor, Tosh and Harris, there's no danger I'm going to get carried away on the back of one result, I made that mistake after the Co-Op Cup game at Almondvale. Can't help but feel we be brought back down to earth, I just hope it's not another heavy defeat and I hope neither Weatherston or Dobbie (or McQuilken) score against us!

Pretty sure it will be the same starting XI as last week with probably Morgan replacing Milne on the bench.

I think that's a bit on the harsh side. We weren't Brazil and definitely had to hold on for a spell towards the end up we should have scored before we got our first and should have added a third in the 5-10 mins after scoring the second.


They are both out injured but are the only two, which must be the lowest casualty count for years! Milne and MacDonald obviously suspended. Morris has been down at Stamford Bridge all week getting treatment on his groin. Even managed to squeeze in an appearance on ITV's coverage of the Chelsea game!

Harris and Arbuckle could be back.


Gordon Chisholm is 'keeping his fingers crossed' that Bob Harris, Gary Arbuckle and Tom Parratt (who was injured last week) could be back in the squad for Saturday's match against St Johnstone at Palmerston.

Said the manager this afternoon, "All three took part in light training this morning and I'm hoping they will be ready for the week-end. But it's just a case of wait and see".

Stevie Tosh will miss one match following that 'red card' at Cappielow but Sean O'Connor is back in training and it's hoped the 'big man' could be leading the attack again in a couple of weeks.

Neil Scally and Jamie Adams are still missing.

Cheers "Burn's Brother"

Just realised I've got the wrong poster! Still Cheers though!

Will Tosh miss this game and if so does that mean the fans' favourite Scott Robertson will start?

Out of interest Radders any idea how often we used 4-5-1 in that season? I think the success of the formation relies heavily on how the Swankster and Craig play on the wings. Swankie was very effective in the first hour of the game against Ross County in getting forward to support Collin Samuel, however i thought Liam Craig struggled to get forward as much, fingers crossed they both have a good game tomorrow.

Think it will end up a score draw tommorow.

It's good to have three players like that in the middle. Very difficult to get passed and all have a wee bit about them which suggests they can get forward. With Swankie on Craig on the wings it actually sounds really good and at least we won't concede goals left, right and centre. I'm quite excited about the game now!

O'Connor is a huge loss for them. He seems to play doss against us constantly. There's been a lot of high scoring draws predicted but i can see a scrappy 1-0 win for someone with the amount of injured, suspended and out of form strikers in both teams.

Hard to remember but Sturrock had really difficultly in finding a third striker that season. Most weeks it was either 4-4-2 with Jenkinson on the left and Grant up top alongside O'Boyle or the 4-5-1 with O'Neil, Scott, Dasovic, Sekerlioglu and Preston across the middle. We used it more than sparingly though.

I think the striker makes the formation as much as the midfield to be honest. O'Boyle was superb with his back to goal and at spreading play (I'm sure there's a joke about lines in there somewhere too) and last week Sammy held the ball well and his movement caused them all sorts of problems. When you then add in a proper wide man like Swankie and Millar, the best player at breaking beyond the strikers Phillip Scott, and it has the potential to work quite well for us. I think this is probably the best midfield we've had since we've been back in this league.

Even though O'Connor is missing out for them, I've always thought Stewart Kean has caused us problems in the past and Dobbie has tormented us down there as well. Still would rather have Kean playing than O'Connor but it's still a hard player for the defence to face. Not sure they have anyone that can come in and have the same sort of impact as Tosh though.

I see the Evening Telegraph says Moon is in the squad so I guess he'll take Savo's place and Morgan will again miss out. Can't say I'm that surprised, or disappointed. Hopefully he can get himself up to speed over the next few weeks though and make an impact at some point.

Who's Burn's brother?

If he does we will lose.

Nothing to beat giving the opposition a fighting chance.We got a draw away with ten men last week so we should at least equal that at home.

Well my beloved St Johnstone couldn't buy a clean sheet in a bedding factory closing-down sale so we'll just have to get two ourselves in a narrow away win.

Great to hear mention of Joddy Morris in the mix, he's been missed.

Hope Gary Irvine's got his eye in, he could be in for a torrid afternoon.