St Johnstone goalkeeper Elliot Parish has said that his teammates will be right up for Sunday’s game at McDiarmid Park against Celtic. The game will the final match before the Winter Break begins on December 27th, allowing teams to recuperate following a gruelling first half to the season.
A 2-1 defeat to Ross County increased the margin at the bottom for Callum Davidson’s side but they aren’t talking about the drop just yet – with Parish telling The Courier that they will be fighting for everything when Ange Postecoglou’s side arrive in Perth.
“Ross County was a real sickener. But I tell you what, we’ll be going really hard at it on Sunday.
“Let’s get our teeth right into it. We are going to fight like hell.
“And we need those 500 fans behind us. I could hear them do that against Ross County, especially in the second half.
“As a club – players, staff and fans – let’s all pull together now and have a magic second half of the season. It needs to be everyone. They need us and we need them. It’s as simple as that.”
Saints have struggled at both ends of the pitch this season but they will take heart from Jim Goodwin’s St Mirren, who held Celtic to a 0-0 draw during the week. Parish is deputising for Zander Clark, who is currently sidelined.
Celtic will play the game on Sunday before shutting down for a few weeks to allow for the January break to act as a circuit breaker for Scottish football. With cases on the rise, fans were limited to just 500 regardless of the size of the stadium. This would mean that the two games against Hibs and Rangers would have been taken in by embarrassingly low crowds. Fortunately, ten out of twelve teams voted in favour of bringing the break forward.
