Just a few days, and several thousand miles, separate Sunday's World Cup Final and Saints first friendly against Ayr United. There's plenty more differences than that, but I won't go into them or I'll be here OK. However, football for Buddies is back, and more than welcome it is too. The changes in the manager's office and the playing squad make this the most eagerly anticipated season since we were promoted five years ago, and tomorrow is the first chance to see our new stars in action.
A decent crowd is expected to make the short trip to Ayr for our first friendly and it's become a traditional pre-season game, although most people would probably prefer this particular game to be on a Saturday. However, the day of the week won't make any difference to our players, who have now been in training for a week. Just 10 members of last season's squad remain - not including youngsters - which shows the turn around Danny Lennon has been performing. Admittedly not everyone was pushed out the door, with Billy Mehmet and Andy Dorman choosing to leave. They still haven't been replaced although two trialists, Sean Lynch and Niko Gkionis, will bid to win contracts tomorrow. There are also likely to be debuts for Darren McGregor, Paul McQuade, Jure Travner, Peter Bradley, Craig Samson, Gareth Wardlaw and returning Saint David van Zanten. Lee Mair is injured.
We played Ayr twice last year - once in a friendly and once in the League Cup - and, like ourselves, they have also undergone major changes. Manager Brian Reid is still there and was perhaps an outside runner for the Saints manager's job, although Ayr's relegation last year probably put paid to that. Gone are the days when their squad was packed with familiar names like Andy Walker, Neil Tarrant and John Hughes, with the much travelled Mark Roberts - who had a stint at Saints eight years ago - now the only instantly recognisable team. Alan Trouten in midfield could prove a decent signing, while recent acquisition Andy Rodgers seems to know where the goal is at this level.