Revenge is at the top of the agenda for many Saints fans tomorrow. Back in August we were dumped out of the League Cup at Palmerston and we could have few complaints. We were very poor and Queens fully deserved to progress at our expense, ending our defence of the trophy at the very first step. Tomorrow is a great chance to put that right. We seem to be performing a lot better, you can clearly see we have a plan and our players are in their correct positions. I expect us to put in a much better display than we did at the start of the season and we should know, after the cup and friendly defeats, that we can't just roll into Dumfries and expect to progress without putting in a shift.
The cup defeat was yet another horror show at the hands of lower league opposition. They have been all too regular since we were promoted to the SPL and while they seemed to have been reduced under Danny Lennon the disaster in Dumfries was the third such shock during his time at the club. That cannot be repeated tomorrow - especially as it will mean we're out of both cup competitions before Christmas. While it would be greedy to expect another cup run after last season's glory, we should be capable of progressing until we at least come up against a decent Premiership side. Losing once to a lower league team in a cup is bad enough, losing twice to them in the space of a few months is totally unacceptable. We must treat Queens with the respect they are due and put in a great performance or else lightning could well strike twice.
Last time we went to Palmerston low on confidence as things weren't going well. This time we head there with just one defeat in seven and after taking seven points out nine. The mood is completely different and hopefully that should allow us to get a much better result. There should be a decent turn out of Buddies for this one and hopefully they will be rewarded with a decent display.
There will be at least four players that started our last game against Queens that won't be in the first 11 for this one. Gary Teale is still injured, while David Cornell, Gary Harkins and Danny Grainger will be on the bench at best. One of David van Zanten and Jim Goodwin will almost certainly be absent too. The latter was suspended for last week's game and Vanzy did well in his place, but we'll almost certainly see our captain back in. Nearly half the team changed, and many of the others moved about, suggest this will be a very different display.
Jason Naismith, Sean Kelly and Paul McGowan didn't start that game, while Marian Kello wasn't even at the club. The former Hearts goalie has been terrific since we signed him a month or so ago and looks extremely confident at dealing with crosses. Hopefully he continues in that vein tomorrow as another clean sheet and cup progress could help him get a deal beyond the turn of the year. We really need to keep him - and Conor Newton - until the end of the season and the extra finance a cup run provides could be crucial in allowing that to happen. Newton and the rest of our midfield have been superb of late, as have our young fullbacks and our lone striker Steven Thompson continues to defy the years up top.
Queens haven't exactly had a great start to the season. They were being tipped as outside contenders for a place in the promotion play-offs and while that is still achievable, their current form and league position suggests they will be battling it out at the other end in the second half of the campaign. Many fans are still undecided on manager Jim McIntyre, who replaced the Kilmarnock-bound Allan Johnston in the summer, and it's fair to say his side are inconsistent. They've struggled against the part-time teams in the division but beat Morton (cheers for that!) and knocked league leaders Hamilton out of the Scottish Cup at the start of November.
The Doonhamers have a couple of strikers who know the route to goal, although understandably neither has gone quite as goal crazy as Nicky Clark did last season. On paper, Derek Lyle and Iain Russell look like a potent partnership, although I'm not quite sure how often they've played together this season. Between them they've scored 15 goals so far so clearly they're doing a decent enough job however often they're being played. The problem is the rest of the forward players are only scoring here and there. Admittedly, Dan Carmichael is more of a winger - and a rather good one at that - while one of Michael Paton's goals knocked us out of the League Cup. Youngster Gavin Reilly scores the odd goal, although many fans wanted to see him playing instead of Clark last season.
The main reason many supporters reckon Queens are struggling is because of their goalie. Calum Antell came in over the summer but has been a bit dodgy, which isn't a huge surprise when you consider he's come from Hibs. It was always going to be difficult for someone to replace the popular Lee Robinson, but Antell has really struggled. He recently got injured, although there are murmurings this was a fabricated injury so they could get St Johnstone's Zander Clark on an emergency loan. The jury is still out on him, but he is a bit more imposing. Andy Dowie, who played for McIntyre at Dunfermline, has been a bit shaky at times but the rest of the defence looks fairly solid on paper. Chris Mitchell and Kevin Holt are decent fullbacks while Chris Higgins, Mark Durnan and Ryan McGuffie are good in the middle.
Many Queens fans are quite excited about American youngster Kevin Dzierzawski (known locally as Kevin or the American lad). He seems to have a great range and vision of passing and came in from college football (or soccer) over the summer. The experienced Paul Burns is back from injury and he's a player I'd have quite liked at Saints a few years back, although his move to Dunfermline didn't work out particularly well. Stephen McKenna has hurt us in both games against Queens this season, while Derek Young seems to have been about forever. Youngsters Ian McShane and Dan Orsi are highly rated and provide some competition for the more experienced players.
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