TONY REFLECTS ON WEEKEND GAME

The final week of preparation for the new season gets underway this morning as the training regime starts to settle down into some sort of routine following the intense and varied.

The squad will train today and tomorrow ahead of Wednesday’s home match against Burnley (7.30pm).

Reflecting on Saturday’s 4- 2 defeat at Inverness Assistant Manager Tony Docherty said “I thought we started the game okay and had a decent shape but then the two goals knocked the stuffing out of us. They were soft goals to lose and it’s a blessing these things happen during the pre-season but that’s what these games are all about. Nevertheless, there were mistakes made and it now gives us the chance to go out onto the training pitch and work to rectify them.”

As the fans who made the trip north will be aware, Saints were a much improved side after the break and the second forty five showing pleased both Tony and manager Derek McInnes.

“We made a change at half time and I thought Derek Holmes (pictured) had a very positive impact. We did really well after the break against an SPL side who were playing their first-choice team. The back four moved up, the midfield started to squeeze their opponents a bit more and we got a couple of good goals. It was disappointing to concede another two – particularly the fourth from the last kick of the ball but overall there were a lot of positives to take from a good work out.”

Tony stressed that neither he nor Derek are overly concerned about the loss of eight goals in the last couple of matches.

“If we had conceded that many with our regular back four then the alarm bells would be ringing but you have to remember that we had only one recognised defender in his natural position in last Thursday’s game - the injuries to Kevin James and Steven Anderson meant that we had Steven Doris at full back and Gary Irvine at centre half and then on Saturday we had Paul Sheerin filling in at the left back slot.

“It’s no secret that the left back position is the one we have to fill and the manager is away looking at a player at the moment. As I say we did make a couple of errors at the back on Saturday and we’ll work on them ahead of the Burnley game.”