The prospect of taking on Galatasaray is the stuff of boyhood dreams, St Johnstone defender James Brown has admitted.
But Perth minds won’t start drifting to Istanbul when there’s a Premiership opener in Dingwall to hold their attention.
Saturday’s clash with Ross County will be followed by a Europa League trip to Turkey and, according to the former Millwall man, there will be no problem for the Saints players staying focused on the first task put in front of them – getting the league campaign off to a Highland flier.
Let’s just leave this here for tonight 🏆🏆#SJFC pic.twitter.com/O7KGU8ygsT
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) July 24, 2021
“I’d imagine training will be quite intense this week with everyone wanting to start against Ross County,” said the right-back.
“The boys will then want to showcase that they want to play in the European game. That will be in the back of the mind.
“So training is going to be a good standard with a lot of boys vying to start. You want that competition.
“Now that the final pre-season game is done, we’re all looking forward to Ross County.
“Not many kids grow up and end up playing the likes of PSV Eindhoven or Galatasaray. It’s something the boys are excited about. It’s crazy for our club.
“But we’ll give a good account of ourselves, of course.
“Hopefully we can get a good start in the league. Then full focus turns to the first leg.  It’s going to be a busy August.”
McDiarmid Park will be bouncing
One of Brown’s Saints team-mates who has already sampled a few big European evenings at McDiarmid Park has whetted his appetite as to what he can expect in the return leg against the Turkish giants.
“Hopefully we can fill the place out, depending on the regulations,” he said.
“Stevie May has told me that the stadium is bouncing on a European night. That is what you want to play in.
“Whoever we play – it’s looking like Galatasaray – it will be some occasion.
“There will be no pressure on us. We’ll go over there for the first leg and embrace every minute of it.
EUROPEAN FOOTBALL IS COMING BACK TO MCDIARMID PARK!
We will play our Europa League qualifier game at McDiarmid Park!
Fantastic news for Saints fans!#SJFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) July 24, 2021
“We know what their fans are like. You want to play in atmospheres like that. We’ll want it as big and loud as possible.
“At the end of the day it is 11 versus 11 on the pitch. We all know what we’re doing.
“We’ll give them a game and hopefully come back to McDiarmid Park with a chance of going through.”
