St Johnstone WFC preview: Gartcairn (H)

A Megan Burns header minutes before half-time secured St Johnstone WFC three SWPL2 points in their last outing against Stirling University at the end of last month.

While the match might not have been one for the purists, it was a hard-earned triumph a fifth clean sheet of the season for goalkeeper Bobby Cochran.

The result saw Saints move into fourth in the table and Kev Candy’s side are back in league action this weekend when they take on Gartcairn at Riverside on Sunday (1pm).

“We had pre-planned to give the players the weekend off there, purely to try and strike the balance of playing to a high level and also realising that real life can get in the way,” he explained.

“Since January they have secured a lot more points than we did in the front half of the season, so we identified the weekend to take time to recuperate and recharge.

“In terms of the Stirling match, it was a bit stop-start. The level of press and energy that Stirling brought into the fixture was more than what they had done against us previously.

“It probably did catch us by surprise slightly, that is with no disrespect to Stirling either. We knew they had it in the locker.

“We just didn’t quite contest the game physically enough. We slowly came into it and obviously got our goal later on in the game. But we really had to work for those three points.

“We keep asking the players to demonstrate resilience and they did that in the Stirling game. It was a different type of resilience where they really had to roll the sleeves up and do the dirty side of the game.”

On Gartcairn this weekend, Candy continued: “On one hand we know it is going to be a challenge, purely because all you need to do is look back at Gartcairn’s recent form.

“They have moved themselves out of the foot of the table and they are not a million miles away from us points wise.

“We are going to be playing a little bit of a different Gartcairn. They had a lot of new signings in January and they have now had that time to gel as a team.

“We are going to have to up our game quite considerably to match their challenge, but that is something that I believe we have in the locker.”

Saints are heading into the weekend with two new signings in their ranks. Lila Aitchison and Maddy Haston both put pen to paper before the Stirling fixture and manager Candy was delighted to add both girls to his squad.

He added: “Maddy and Lila have actually been training with us since earlier in the year when the squad was going through a fair bit of transition.

“I had a conversation with Grant Scott of Hibs, previously St Johnstone manager, he put me in touch with Stewart Hall the academy lead and we identified players who could possibly come in.

“Maddy and Lila were coming out of an U18s performance environment, and it took them some time to get up to speed to the demands of women’s football.

“They earned the right to sign for us, but also the position that they played were areas that we required cover too.

“Both young players have been working extremely hard and they have been looked after by our senior players. Both are signings for the future but they will be able to contribute to the here and now as well, which is great for the club.”

Kick-off on Sunday is 1pm at the Riverside. It will be cash only entry with adults priced at £5 and concessions £1. Under-16s and Saints season ticket holders enter for free. 

Saints Fans Supporting Foodbanks will be collecting items for the local foodbank before the match.