St Johnstone boss Steve Lomas hopes his side’s Scottish Cup tie at Cowdenbeath will finally get the go-ahead at the fourth attempt tomorrow night to avert a defensive crisis.
Should the tie at Central Park be postponed yet again, Lomas will be forced to go into Saturday’s SPL clash with Hearts minus the services of four central defenders, following Steven Anderson’s red card at St Mirren.
Anderson will definitely miss the Hearts game as his one-match ban kicks in, while fellow centre-back Frazer Wright will also miss the Jambos’ visit after going over the penalty points threshold.
Skipper Dave Mackay who still has one match to go of a two-game violent conduct ban covering both cup and league matches would be available to play on Saturday if tomorrow’s cup tie is played, although any further postponement in Fife would rule him out, while David McCracken remains sidelined following surgery on his fractured cheekbone.
It is a situation that is far from perfect for the Perth boss but, with an early inspection scheduled at Central Park for this afternoon, it does not look like it is going to get any better.
”We’ve a real problem on our hands if the cup tie doesn’t go ahead on Wednesday,” Lomas said.
”We are desperate for the tie to go ahead and not just because of the suspension situation.
”There are enough games over Christmas without having to try and fit in a cup game as well one more game doesn’t do you any favours.
”So, it is fingers crossed the pitch gets the all-clear. We will address the Hearts situation later in the week. Right now, we have to focus on Cowdenbeath.
”We saw what Arbroath did against Celtic so there’s no warning needed that they’ll fancy their chances of causing an upset.”
Along with Anderson’s straight red card for a last-man challenge on Saturday, midfielder Chris Millar was also given his marching orders for a second bookable offence, which means he will also be unavailable against Hearts.
Both players are eligible to play against Cowdenbeath if the cup tie goes ahead and Lomas had little complaints about the red cards that left his team facing a real onslaught from St Mirren in the dying stages of Saturday’s 1-1 draw.
”It was a real body blow going down to nine and conceding straight away,” he said.
”Ando slipped and his natural instinct as a defender is to stop the forward getting in on goal.
”Some people say you should take your chances and hope the keeper makes a save and you keep 11 on the park, but in that split-second it is difficult to rein yourself in.
”And I thought Midge was very unlucky because it was a tangle of legs as their lad ran across him.
”With one off already I thought we might have got away with it.
”But it was a heroic effort. There was nearly 20 minutes to see out and it speaks volumes for them that they got us a point.
‘They dug deep and the mentality of the lads was magnificent once again.
”We had a chance at 1-0 to give us a real cushion but Craig Samson pulled off a magnificent save to stop Stevie MacLean.
”But, in the circumstances, it was a great point for us in Paisley.”
On a positive note for Saints, midfielder Paddy Cregg and winger Peter Pawlett who have both been struggling with injuries of late appeared as second-half substitutes and could feature this week.