Jan Poortvliet is once again having a busy weekend

Saints face Celtic tonight followed by a friendly at Eastleigh on Saturday in another busy weekend.

The Celtic game is likely to be semi serious in that it has been agreed that apart from Claus himself, Le Tiss and Michael Svensson, all of whom start on the bench, that all players have to be registered with the club, that being the case its likely that for about 75 minutes at least the game will be played at a fair pace.

However I would ask Saints fans not to read too much into any result, like it or not in our current situation we do not have players with the capabilities of most of the Celtic squad, if we lost heavily to them tonight, it would give no real indication to the season, any more than if we beat Man Utd, we could claim to be European Champions.

We have to take tonight for what it is, a chance to play decent opposition and begin the serious side to pre season, the real calibre of the side for next season wont emerge tonight, but over the next few weeks as some players leave and some arrive.

Of course it would be nice to see the squad aqquit themselves well and hopefully that is what they will do, but the focus must remain firmly on what the occasion is about, honouring Claus Lundekvam, rather than the result.

The following day a squad goes to Eastleigh, of course it will be mainly one made up of youngsters, however with only 14 of the squad able to face Celtic due to our three "guests" there are likely to be a good splattering of experienced players.

But as i have said this is the last weekend of the pre season warm up, the serious business begins on Monday morning.  

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls