Saints ready for Dens Park test

Saints make the short trip to Dens Park on Saturday to take on local rivals Dundee in the latest round of the Scottish Premiership fixtures.

Tommy Wright's side remain unbeaten after the first five league games and sit just two points off joint leaders Celtic and Aberdeen. Dundee, meanwhile, have had a trying start to the season and with only one point are currently rooted to the bottom of the table but that might count for little given the derby nature of this fixture and Neil McCann and his assistant, former Saints defender Graham Gartland, will no doubt be emphasising to their players that Saturday’s game would be a great occasion to gain their first win of the campaign.

Saints will be looking to avoid a repeat of our last meeting at Dens Park when Dundee ran out 3-0 winners on Hogmanay last year. However, we did get the better of our Tayside neighbours overall last season, emerging victorious on the other two occasions that the teams met.

Ahead of the match, Wright has been keen to stress that, despite Dundee's slow start, anything can happen in a derby match:

“We will go there with a lot of confidence but Dundee will feel they are due a win because they have been very unlucky in a few of their matches.

“We went there last season at New Year and lost 3-0, despite Dundee being on a poor run at the time and that just underlined for me that form means very little in this league.

“You see it all the time – teams on good runs lose to teams on bad runs. You just have to look at every game on the day because there is so little between so many of the clubs."

As far as team news goes, Wright should have most of the squad to choose from with midfielder Blair Alston the only definite non-starter as he continues to recover from injury. Michael O'Halloran will be looking to add to his impressive goals tally after scoring for the fifth time in as many league games last time out against Hibs but Saints fans will not be overly concerned who gets the goals provided we win!
Gary Petersen

IMPORTANT ADMISSION INFORMATION

Advance tickets remain on sale for the game from the McDiarmid Park Ticket Office until 5pm on Friday (see previous news story) and families are reminded that the discounted deal for kids is only available with pre-purchased tickets.

Anyone who has tickets should enter the stadium via turnstiles 33 and 34 ONLY with those paying cash using turnstiles 35 to 38. Cash payers will be issued with a ticket on entry and the row and seat number must be adhered to.

A good Saints support is anticipated and so fans are urged to arrive early – particularly those paying cash. Traffic enforcement is in operation so those using street parking should park carefully and considerately to ensure that they don’t return to discover their car ticketed or towed!