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We Just Need The Utah Version To Arrive And We Have A Full House!

Last updated : 08 March 2008 By Ed_ScottishFitba

St Johnstone welcome their fellow Saints (of Mirren variety) today for their Scottish Cup quarter-final game. The home side welcome the return of Liam Craig and Steven Anderson after suspension but youngster Kevin Moon remains a doubt, while up to seven players remain on the sidelines through injury. Nevertheless, the Perth side are determined to prove they are good enough for the SPL and manager Derek McInnes believes beating the Buddies is the ideal way to demonstrate the quality within their squad. The club reached the semi-finals of both the Scottish Cup and the CIS Insurance Cup last season - losing to Celtic and Hibs respectively - and McInnes sees no reason why they cannot reach the last four once again. St Mirren will be favourites to progress from the McDiarmid Park game but McInnes insists he has players good enough to compete at the highest level. He said: "Last year we got to both semi-finals and managed to beat SPL teams along the way. I've got a lot of SPL-standard players in the squad and they want to test themselves at that level. My boys are no different from anyone else. I don't think there is that much between the two sides. It will be a tough game. St Mirren are the favourites and had been going quite well until losing to Kilmarnock on Saturday. They are used to playing SPL opposition - against the likes of Celtic and Rangers - and that reason alone makes them favourites to go through. But it's one that we are looking forward to and we are confident we can cause them a few problems."

St Mirren are likely to be without full-back David Barron who is still suffering from a groin injury but are hopeful to see Craig Dargo return from a foot problem. Jim Hamilton is cup-tied while broken foot victims Stephen O'Donnell and Richard Brittain remain out despite making their return to training. St Mirren defender Ian Maxwell is determined to ensure there is no repeat of the pain he endured the last time the Buddies reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals. Saints lost 1-0 to Gretna in 2006 before watching the then Second Division side go all the way to the final. Maxwell came off the Raydale Park pitch eager to make sure there is no repeat of the pain he suffered for the cause. He said: "It was a horrible windy day and I got seven staples in my head. I think it was a collision with James Grady's elbow. It was a horrible feeling coming away and being so close to Hampden and it not working out. We have been talking about that this week and saying it's another chance to get there and put that right. It's not nice, guys will play their careers and never get within a sniff of getting to Hampden, so to get so close to it twice within three years. It hurt so much the first time; nobody wants to go through that again."

The left-back comes up against his former club but it is a much-changed side from the one he left in 2005. However, he knows enough about the Perth club's run to the semi-finals of both cup competitions last season to appreciate their threat. McInnes took over from Owen Coyle earlier in the season but the nucleus of the squad who beat four SPL teams, including Rangers, is still there. Maxwell said: "I've been away for three years now, there has been a fair turnaround of players. There are maybe only four or five that are there from the time I was there. I got Coyley for a couple of months as a manager and he is even away now, so I don't know particularly much about them. I haven't seen them a great deal since my first season here when we were both in the same division. But they have a good history in cup ties, last season they did particularly well against Premier League sides, so we are under no illusions about how hard it's going to be. I remember watching them when they went to Motherwell and won. They were deservedly winning, it wasn't a fluke. Sometimes you get Premier Division clubs having an off day, but they were winning on merit. They have more or less the same squad with a few additions, like Jody Morris, who has made them even stronger."

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