Manager Simo Valakari believes St Johnstone will have to "earn our luck" against champions Celtic on Wednesday. "We need to do our football things so well, then at the same time, we need to earn our luck, because against Celtic, if you want to beat them, you need to be a little bit lucky in some moments," Valakari said. "You need to do your things so well that the luck favours you and that's kind of the thing that we tried."
St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari has been speaking to the media before Wednesday's Scottish Premiership match against Celtic (20:00 BST). The Saints boss insists playing teams like Celtic is a reward for their promotion last season and believes his team are able to compete with the best on a game-by-game basis. The Perth side can take belief from beating Celtic in the past and, although it is now a very different Celtic team, Valakari says this is also a very different St Johnstone team.
Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!♫ ♪ The champions ♫ ♪ ! Bigger Cup is back, baby! Red-hot action from the world’s premier club competition across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Bigger Vase and Tin Pot clubs must wait for their slice of European action until after an international break almost as long as the Geopolitics World Cup itself. Rather like Gianni Infantino’s North American investment roadshow, Bigger Cup, with its revolving Swiss system, 36 teams reduced to 24 following 114 matches, has become baggier than MC Hammer’s trousers [now there’s a reference for the young readers – Football Daily Ed]. Back in Clive Tyldesley’s ITV pomp, ties such as Liverpool v Atlético, Napoli v Arsenal, and Real Madrid v Inter moved the dial, filling boozers and column inches.Should Mauricio Pochettino play Russell Crowe in his biopic or should it be the other way around?” – Krishna Moorthy.Following up on the very entertaining game between Arsenal and Chelsea, there was one piece of tactical brilliance by Xabi Alonso that didn’t get the credit it deserved. Everyone knows how dangerous Arsenal have been at corners causing chaos by saturating numbers in the opposition penalty area but Chelsea’s plan of keeping their four front men in Arsenal’s half removed a lot of the threat. Why hasn’t someone done this before and why didn’t Chelsea continue with this excellent plan?” – Nigel Sanders.Three weeks ago Hearts Women won 5-0 away against Motherwell. Two weeks ago they won 6-0 at home against Aberdeen. At the weekend they won 7-0 away at Montrose. NOW That’s What I Call Goal Difference! I’m just trying to work out when, if this sequence continues, they might set a new record football match score in the UK, beating the Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, which took place on 12 September 1885. A goal every two and-a-half minutes! The Mike Dean of that match probably didn’t have had to leave the centre circle for the entire game” – Ken Muir.Let me be the first of 1,057 USA USA USA-based readers to congratulate Jamie Carragher on his honesty. It is patently clear he doesn’t give a monkeys. The b@nter-filled, social media-chasing CBS Bigger Cup coverage is an absolute trainwreck. They should leave the comedy to actual comedians. As a Spurs fan I’d rather watch Arsenal win another league title than suffer through another CBS half-time production. And if you don’t believe me just ask anyone in the States … it makes you wish for the wit and wisdom of Alexi Lalas!” – Chris Brown.José Mourinho’s blathering about ‘we won what we won and lost what we lost’ (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is just meaningless jibber-jabber. It’s right up there with the mindless ‘it is what it is’. I challenge the Football Daily pedant community: what isn’t what it is? What has a club not won what it won? When does a team not lose what it’s lost? Is there a plausible weeklong riff here? Or is that not what it is?” – Mike Wilner. Continue reading...
Martin O'Neill has been speaking to the media before Celtic visit St Johnstone in the Premiership on Wednesday (20:00 BST). Striker Kasper Hogh has been back in training the past couple of days and fellow injury absentee Kieran Tierney returned to work with the squad this morning. Both are in contention for the game, with Hogh the likelier, while there are "a couple of other fitness issues for players".
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