SPFL Trust Trophy: St Johnstone B


Radford 72

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St Johnstone B begin their SPFL Trust Trophy campaign with a rare home tie on Wednesday evening when Brechin City are the visitors to McDiarmid Park.

Inclusion of colt teams far from universally popular but, so far, it hasn't provided any sort of appetite for B teams being admitted to the SPFL thankfully.

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Players born in or after 2004 are eligible, including those on loan at other clubs. For Saints that includes Essel, Steven, Kirk, Parker, Hepburn, Cocks and Franczak from the first team squad.

How many of those players are involved remains to be seen but it provides an opportunity for those young players starting out to get a taste of proper football. In that category are Klimionek, Ellison, Bright, Mylchreest, McCrystal, McMillan and Shiels from last season and summer additions Dair, Binnie and Brockfield.

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St Johnstone B record since introduction of colt teams in 2016:

2016/17
St Johnstone B 1-2 Turriff Utd (Hurst)

2017/18
Aberdeen B 1-0 St Johnstone B

2018/19
Dundee Utd 3-2 St Johnstone B (Hendry 2)

2019/20
St Johnstone B 1-4 Cove Rangers (Northcott)

2021/22
East Fife 1-0 St Johnstone B

2022/23
Fraserburgh 0-2 St Johnstone B (Pert, Steven)
East Fife 4-0 St Johnstone B

2023/24
Elgin City 2-0 St Johnstone B

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Wednesday's game has a 7:45pm start with just the Main Stand open. Prices are £10 for adults, £5 concessions and U12s go free. Season tickets are NOT valid.

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8 hours ago, Radford 72 said:

St Johnstone B begin their SPFL Trust Trophy campaign with a rare home tie on Wednesday evening when Brechin City are the visitors to McDiarmid Park.

Inclusion of colt teams far from universally popular but, so far, it hasn't provided any sort of appetite for B teams being admitted to the SPFL thankfully.

*****

Players born in or after 2004 are eligible, including those on loan at other clubs. For Saints that includes Essel, Steven, Kirk, Parker, Hepburn, Cocks and Franczak from the first team squad.

How many of those players are involved remains to be seen but it provides an opportunity for those young players starting out to get a taste of proper football. In that category are Klimionek, Ellison, Bright, Mylchreest, McCrystal, McMillan and Shiels from last season and summer additions Dair, Binnie and Brockfield.

*****

St Johnstone B record since introduction of colt teams in 2016:

2016/17
St Johnstone B 1-2 Turriff Utd (Hurst)

2017/18
Aberdeen B 1-0 St Johnstone B

2018/19
Dundee Utd 3-2 St Johnstone B (Hendry 2)

2019/20
St Johnstone B 1-4 Cove Rangers (Northcott)

2021/22
East Fife 1-0 St Johnstone B

2022/23
Fraserburgh 0-2 St Johnstone B (Pert, Steven)
East Fife 4-0 St Johnstone B

2023/24
Elgin City 2-0 St Johnstone B

*****

Wednesday's game has a 7:45pm start with just the Main Stand open. Prices are £10 for adults, £5 concessions and U12s go free. Season tickets are NOT valid.

Can't see Essel playing as he will still be banned and can't use up his suspension in the B team.

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10 hours ago, Cagey said:

The unexpected last 16 tie at Hampden could pay for that.

There are lots of young guys sitting in the stand or out on loan"is it easy to loan out 11 kids" , every week.

I didn’t phrase it well as it’s £50,000 a season for the first two, then negotiable after that. I would really rather we didn’t - and never - go down that route. B teams should be nowhere near the pyramid and paying to jump in a few tiers up is a farce. 

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10 minutes ago, PSJ.84 said:

I didn’t phrase it well as it’s £50,000 a season for the first two, then negotiable after that. I would really rather we didn’t - and never - go down that route. B teams should be nowhere near the pyramid and paying to jump in a few tiers up is a farce. 

I read it as £50 k for two seasons.

£50 k a season is out reach for us.

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18 hours ago, pezza70 said:

Great news

Does anyone have any info on how much would it cost the club to get a team in the lowland or highland league?

We have a very big squad who come game day are doing nothing week in, week out 

Really hope Saints don't go down this route. I'm not in favour of B-teams in the lower leagues at all, and feel it shouldn't be allowed.

I'd much rather see Saints reconsider their decision not to enter the reserve league.

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25 minutes ago, THE LARK SAINT said:

Not to mention punch ups in the dug out 2 red cards from both sides of dugout 

Handbags between Cregg and Kirk. I think they both got reds.

Good header by Essel and nice flicked finish by Smith who blasted over from 18 yards.

Essel could have been sent off for a wild two footed tackle early in first half. I think he got the ball which may have saved him but Saints will have to get him to calm down or he will miss a few games.

Young guys dominated the game with no failures but Smith and Kirk did show up too well. Pretty of effort but no finished article.

Parker dominated . Don't know why we wasted money on a Hearts reject when we have Parker"who is good with both feet" and Essel who can play centre back.

Even had a decent game as captain. I assume you are allowed an over 18 player.

Goalie had a decent game without having much to do.

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Just now, Cagey said:

Handbags between Cregg and Kirk. I think they both got reds.

Good header by Essel and nice flicked finish by Smith who blasted over from 18 yards.

Essel could have been sent off for a wild two footed tackle early in first half. I think he got the ball which may have saved him but Saints will have to get him to calm down or he will miss a few games.

Young guys dominated the game with no failures but Smith and Kirk did show up too well. Pretty of effort but no finished article.

Parker dominated . Don't know why we wasted money on a Hearts reject when we have Parker"who is good with both feet" and Essel who can play centre back.

Even had a decent game as captain. I assume you are allowed an over 18 player.

Goalie had a decent game without having much to do.

Should have been Smith blasted over from 18 yards (minutes earlier).

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Surprisingly heated and entertaining game and great to see our youngsters finally get a win at home in this competition. From the moment Essel made that wild tackle (could easily have been a red card, I thought), it all got a bit bad tempered and the Brechin players were trying to get him sent off by crumpling in a heap every time he put in a challenge. Think he's going to have to be managed carefully through his first season or he could end up picking up a serious number of cards and suspensions.

I quite liked the look of Parker and Klimionek at the back. A few mistakes in there but both big and physical and tried to play some good balls out from the back. Aaron Cocks looks very fast and was played as a striker for most of the game. Kirk possibly a bit greedy at times but looked up for it and eager to impress.

But the main takeaway for me was how filthy and ragged the padded seats are in the Main Stand. First time I've sat there in a while and they were absolutely minging. Covered in dirt and cobwebs and clearly haven't been cleaned for a very long time. Feels a bit embarrassing that we're asking sponsors and hospitality guests to sit on those.

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43 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

 

But the main takeaway for me was how filthy and ragged the padded seats are in the Main Stand. First time I've sat there in a while and they were absolutely minging. Covered in dirt and cobwebs and clearly haven't been cleaned for a very long time. Feels a bit embarrassing that we're asking sponsors and hospitality guests to sit on those.

I hope that this point will be raised by someone at tomorrow's fans' forum.

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A win against good opposition but a strong Saints team given the nature of our involvement in the competition. Despite that, not sure too many emerge with real credit.

Hepburn was solid and made two or three good saves. The centre backs were fine although prone to leaving a chasm between themselves as the game progressed and gave Robertson a lot of time for his goal. They'll both benefit from loans this season, Klimionek having already had his arranged.

Franczak is very good technically and full of energy. I understood he was more of a midfielder but seems to be viewed as a right (wing) back now? Bright assisted the winner and is a trier. I think if he can go on to have a career like Andrew Stevees, he'll have done very well for himself.

The rest of the team was more experienced, to varying degrees. And I'm not sure they'll have given the manager much food for thought. Essel definitely has something, notably a great weight of pass. I actually thought his tackle was a yellow at most but he'll become a target and gain a reputation. The referee lost control of the game at that point.

What disappointed me in the rest of the players was how hard it seemed for them to get the ball under control, on what was a good pitch. Sprangler always seem to be playing on the stretch. Cocks will hopefully improve during his loan and I think Steven probably needs to go out again too. He's disappointed me in his pre-season outings.

Connor Smith will never be for me and I'll be astonished if he makes an impact here. Not just a poor technically but makes routinely poor decisions as well. Kirk was very disappointing too. In comparison to someone like Chris Kane at the same age, he's miles off that. There is no ability to hold or link play and he doesn't put himself about. Never really looked like getting on the end of balls in behind either, in the main. He did in the dying seconds but then missed, having already squandered another sitter.

East Fife will have too much for them next time out I suspect and that'll be that.

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I agree with pretty much all the comments about last night including the padded seats. Brechin brought a decent support with them although one or two were a wee bit excitable. Even their Directors were a bit vocal.

Nobody stood out as 1st team starting material and loan spells are needed but I hope at a decent level to gain better experience.

Given that was a young team put together for last night against a regular 11 I felt we did well. The confidence will do the young lads good.

 

 

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