 St Johnstone players had to introduce themselves to each other on Friday as it is the first time they have managed to train together since the arctic weather arrived in Scotland which prevented safe travel to Perth. However, manager Derek McInnes doubts any team will have worked as hard as his squad during the weather-enforced break. Saints travel to Paisley to take on St Mirren today hoping to build on a two-game unbeaten run on the road following a 1-0 win at Aberdeen and a 0-0 draw at Hibs. Travelling conditions in the last two weeks forced the game with Hamilton to be postponed and meant members of the Perth side were forced to train in four separate locations. McInnes' squad met on Friday as one for the first time since the snow set in and he paid tribute to their efforts during the cold snap. He said: "We managed to get the majority of players together on Wednesday and Thursday but this is the first day we've had together as a full group. It was good to get that with the game being on. The players deserve huge credit. I know there's been huge disruption for everybody, trying to get to work every day with the difficulties of travelling in the last week or so. (But) the players have really set about their work we've put to them. It's not always been enjoyable, pretty mundane, building fitness without doing a lot of ball work, but they've made a huge effort to get to different meeting points and I doubt if there are any SPL clubs that have worked harder in this period. Fitness-wise we'll be fine and we're just making sure we get a good start in the game and build on what has been a decent run of results for us." Saints being unable to train as one group has impacted on preparations for the game in Paisley - they have been unable to practice team tactics, for example - but McInnes believes his squad's attitude will show through. He added: "The players have missed training and playing football. Hopefully we'll see that enthusiasm in the game on Saturday. There will be no excuses for Saturday's game. We'll go down there with a bit of confidence from the last couple of results, two clean sheets and four points and hopefully we can add to that. We want to try and win the game and if we play the way we can we're more than capable of doing that. We've got a good record against St Mirren in the last couple of seasons and we want to continue that. We beat them early in the season. They've got some good players and it will be a tough match. We've just got to make sure St Mirren face a St Johnstone team that are going to give them problems. I expect a battle, but I think we've got enough about our team to go and get a result." |
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