As St Johnstone prepare to face Galatasaray tomorrow in Istanbul, there is a theory doing the rounds, designed to boost confidence in the Perth club’s ranks. Jason Kerr, the Saints captain, was yesterday informed it is just ten months since the Turkish giants were beaten by Rangers in the Europa League, and reminded that it is just four months since Saints won at Ibrox in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup. The 24-year-old subscribes to the notion that they have nothing to fear in the Europa League qualifier.
Now, of course, football does not work that way, but that sequence of results is a reminder that anything can happen as Callum Davidson and his players prepare for the glamour tie. Just like nobody expected them to complete an incredible cup double last year, they are not expected to pose Galatasaray too many problems.
“Rangers are a top side and they showed that last season, winning the title without losing a game in the league,” Kerr said. “Galatasaray are obviously a top side but if Rangers can beat them then why can’t we?
“We gave Rangers a lot of problems last season, we put them out of the Scottish Cup in the quarter-finals before going on to win it. So if Rangers can cause Galatasaray problems then I’m sure we can cause them problems too.
“If we don’t believe we can go there and cause them problems then we’d be as well staying at home. We think we’ve got a top side here and that we can really muster something up to give them a good test.”
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The St Johnstone players will miss out on the chance to play at Galatasaray’s Turk Telekom arena because of the poor condition of the pitch, but it still promises to be a memorable encounter at Basaksehir’s Fatih Terim stadium.
Temperatures are expected to reach 36C during the day, but will have dropped to 31C by kick-off.
“It’s going to be really difficult, especially in the heat because we haven’t played in it before and they have,” Kerr said. “We will have to adapt our gameplan, we can’t be as high- intensity as we would be back home.
“We will need to adapt to the conditions and find a way to stay in the tie for the return leg. If we can do that, we will give ourselves a chance to get into the next round. It would be amazing if we can keep it alive and get a big crowd back at Perth for the second leg.
“But the main thing is this week, it’s a hard place to go and it’s going to be very hard to get a result. We feel that this team are capable of doing that. Leading the boys out in a Scottish Cup final has been the pinnacle of my career so far, but playing against Galatasaray will be right up there and if we can get a result then it could top everything.”
