SAINTS make their first trip to Falkirk, or at least Stenhousemuir tomorrow. Recent form has been poor, with back to back league losses against Raith and Clyde. This has resulted in pressure building on the management team.
Billy Stark was delighted with "the way we managed to fight for our win against Hamilton on Tuesday could be a big, big swing for us, and I’m hoping we take confidence from it into Saturday’s match."
Stark is confident that this fixture does not pose the same problems as last year, where Saints recorded only one point from 12. "I’ve told the players that this will be a better game for us in lots of ways. It won’t be a case of Falkirk putting 11 men behind the ball, which happens most weeks. They will have a go and ask different questions of us, which could be to our benefit. It might be a similar scenario to the Bell’s Cup tie against Clyde where we fought our way to a win away from home."
Falkirk have a different looking side, without the spearhead of last season in the shape of Miller, Coyle, Samuel and Kerr. Yet, they have been replaced by the experienced and talented, O’Neil, Latapy, Xausa and the famous "pineapple head" Jason Lee. It truly is crunch time for Saints.
Peter MacDonald is pushing for a place, after appearing in the latter, but extended stages of Tuesday night; "It was great to get a piece of the action against Hamilton, and now I want to make sure I'm part of the plans for the Falkirk game." On Falkirk he said; "They will be very tough; they're the champions and we'll need to pull out all the stops to get a win. We've got a bit of confidence back after the win midweek and hopefully we can carry that onto the park on Saturday."
The draw for the next round of the CIS Cup was made yesterday afternoon. Saints will face Dunfermline Athletic at home on either Tuesday 28th or Wednesday 29th October.