With Stevie May and Glenn Middleton both injured for St Johnstone’s League Cup semi-final and Chris Kane soon to be suspended, Eetu Vertainen will get his big chance over the next few weeks.
And Saints boss Callum Davidson believes the Finnish under-21 international is in a good position to take it.
As was the case for Guy Melamed, Vertainen has required a few months of adjustment to the Scottish game since signing for the Perth club.
May is out until Christmas after injuring his knee in training and Glenn Middleton requires a hamstring strain picked up with the Scotland under-21s to be assessed.
Plugging the gap for the weekend clash with Celtic is Davidson’s immediate priority.
If the door doesn’t open for Vertainen at Hampden Park, it won’t be long after.
“Glenn will be out on Saturday,” Davidson confirmed. “He’s tweaked his hamstring.
“We’ll need to find out how bad it is.
“Glenn hasn’t had a muscle injury before in his career. Hopefully it’s just a little strain and he won’t be out for too long.
“We’ve got some big games coming up after this one and we need to make sure he’s OK.
“It’s not that long ago we were struggling with defenders and I had loads of attackers. Now it’s the other way around.
“Eetu has looked a lot better and we’ve got Ali Crawford, Michael O’Halloran and David Wotherspoon who can all play in forward positions so it’s their chance to show what they can do.”
He’ll get starts
Davidson, who has given Vertainen 21 minutes of action to date, added: “It is difficult when you come from a different league and a different country.
“Style of play, pitches, team-mates, language are all new.
“Eetu’s had to be patient.
“Stevie May is going to be out for a while. He’ll manage to get starts in the games coming up and it’s up to him what he does.
“It will depend on how hungry he is and how much he wants to be successful.
“He’s got a great group of boys who will help him here.”
Cammy MacPherson is ruled out of selection consideration because he played in the Premier Sports Cup for St Mirren.
Davidson does have two players in Zander Clark and Wotherspoon who have been part of highly successful international camps with Scotland and Canada respectively.
“David will be back on Thursday morning, which isn’t ideal,” he said.
“He’ll have jetlag to recover from but the good thing is he didn’t play 90 minutes. I’m expecting him to be fresh for Saturday.
“David and Zander have both had real highs.
“The danger is that you come back down after them and that’s the good thing about having a semi-final to look forward to. It means there’s no worry of that happening.
“If they’re not up for this game there will be something wrong with them. We all want to get to another final.”
Underdogs again
Even though Saints are the holders of both domestic cup trophies and Davidson is yet to taste defeat as a manager in either of the competitions, there is no argument about who should carry the ‘favourites’ tag at the weekend.
Our last League Cup Semi-Final:
Saints 3 – 0 Hibs 👌
This morning we will take a look back at all the angles of three superb goals!#SJFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) November 17, 2021
“We are the underdogs,” he said. “Celtic are deservedly the favourites for this game.
“So, for me, the pressure is on them. If they win, well, that’s what should happen. It’s expected.
“The pressure is off us in that respect. Outside of our group, anyway – because we really, really want to go and win this one.
“If we have a bit of luck and work extremely hard, do the basics well, we can get the result.
“It’s about making sure the players have the belief they can win the game. I believe we can if we do things right.
“That’s the message I will get across to them.
“We proved that last season, and we can prove it again this season.”
