The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Saints skipper eyeing chance to pip Rangers
They know it’s still a tall order, but St Johnstone are hoping to set up a last-day battle for third with Rangers, according to captain Steven Anderson.
The priority is still clinching fourth and a place in Europe but there is no harm in being greedy. And, after a perfect start to the postsplit fixtures with a win in Aberdeen, you certainly wouldn’t rule out the six-point lead Rangers have over them being eaten into before the sides meet at McDiarmid Park on the final Sunday of the Premiership season.
Anderson, who was back in the Perth side at Pittodrie, said: “They are a top team but we have a good record against Aberdeen. Maybe we have a wee hoodoo over them.
“We seem to do well against the bigger teams, maybe because we are that bit more defensive and we counter attack really well.
“Finishing fourth would be great but we have finished third before. That has to be better, even with Rangers and Hearts back in the league this year.”
“We still have a chance of finishing third. But it is a long shot with Rangers being six points ahead of us,” added Anderson
“The ideal scenario for us would be taking it to the last game of the season knowing that if we beat them we can end up going past them into third.”
Saints will do well to make up ground on Rangers this weekend, as a trip to undefeated Celtic is up next.
Anderson said: “They are always hard games against Celtic and we saw how good they are with that 5-1 win over Rangers at the weekend.
“We will be underdogs and we have nothing to lose going there.
“In the last game at their place we should have had a penalty. I was fouled in the box by Scott Brown. Brown actually said it was a penalty but these things happen in the game.
“Even at McDiarmid they got a penalty that was a disgrace.”
He added: “It is hard to compare but this is probably the best Celtic team I have played against and they have a quality manager. The way they play is so free-flowing.
“They are unbeaten and going for the treble. But we aren’t bothered about all that. It is all about how we apply ourselves.
“You never know, we could get a shock result and if we do then it will be happy days.”
Saturday’s match will be the 400th in a Saints shirt for the Scottish Cup final hero.
“It is nice to have so many appearances for the club but I am only 31 and hopefully there are a lot more to come,” he said. “It’s a good record to have but records are there to be broken.”