St Johnstone summer signing Scott Dobie has had to endure a frustrating pre-season thus far, so the Scottish international is determined to make his mark in the Perth side’s last friendly against Real Valladolid at McDiarmid Park this afternoon.
As a result of missing the trip to Ireland through injury, the former West Brom and Carlisle frontman hasn’t had many opportunities to catch his new manager’s eye.
He is set to get the chance this afternoon, though, and intends to make the most of it.
“I need minutes under my belt to build up my match fitness,” Dobie said.
“The lads had a couple of games over in Ireland, which I missed out on. Before that I’d only played 20 minutes at Forfar, then about 50 at Arbroath.
“I came on for the last 20 against Bolton on Monday night but overall, it hasn’t been a lot.
“Hopefully I’ll be selected tomorrow and will get a good run-out.
“It’s been really frustrating because I did all the hard fitness work and then as soon as the balls came out I picked up a couple of niggles.
“Scoring goals isn’t the important thing, because I’ve had pre-seasons when I’ve scored in every game and not scored for two months when the season started.
“It’s all about match fitness and making sure you aren’t tiring when the game gets to about the hour mark.”
He added, “All the strikers are trying to catch the manager’s eye just now.
“But there’s six or seven of us in the squad and we all can’t start the first match. It’s a long season and if you don’t get picked for the first couple of games you can’t let it get you down.”
Perth boss Derek McInnes revealed that, barring injury, there aren’t many starting berths for the SPL opener against Hearts up for grabs.
“I’ve probably got an idea of eight or nine starters,” he admitted. “All you can look for in pre-season is a gradual improvement in fitness and performance, and I’ve got that.
“We all know that results in themselves aren’t a reliable gauge of how your season will go.
“The result tomorrow isn’t the be all and end all but as a manager you hope to get a good performance to take into your first league game.
“The icing on the cake would be a clean sheet and a win, which would be good for confidence.
“Real are a quality side and they will prove a different type of opposition from what we can expect in the SPL.”
Full-back Dave Mackay hasn’t played since injuring his back in Ireland, and McInnes is faced with a dilemma.
He explained, “He didn’t train today. He’s improving, but not as quickly as we would have liked.
“He’s still getting a bit of pain in his back and we’ll need to decide whether to give him an injection which would give him pain relief to allow him to play.
“We’ll decide tomorrow. Ideally we would like Dave to play, with next week in mind,” he added.
“He’s had four full games in pre-season but if Dungannon proves to be his last match before Hearts, you’re talking about over two weeks without a match, which isn’t perfect preparation.”
Murray Davidson has also had back troubles recently, but he trained on Friday and will definitely be available, the manager said.
Steven Milne and Graham Gartland have both had groin strains. The Irishman will miss out but Milne should be in the squad. McInnes had no news to report on a new goalkeeper as of Friday.
This afternoon’s opponents were relegated from La Liga last season and have drawn with Inverness Caley Thistle and Kilmarnock so far on their Scottish tour. The match has a 3pm kick off.