GO OUT AND DO A CELTS ON GERS; Gus demands Cup KO form.Byline: HUGH KEEVINS GUS MacPHERSON Angus 'Gus' Ian MacPherson (born 11 October 1968 in Glasgow) is a former Scottish footballer and is currently manager of St Mirren. Playing career McPherson started his career as a youth player with Rangers, but was unable to break in to the first team, spending a period has been through the hell of a relegation dogfight at one St Mirren Park and lived to tell the tale. Now he's ready for another one - and is absolutely determined the outcome will be the same. Saints haven't yet recorded a win at the shiny new St Mirren Park but Rangers' visit tomorrow night would be the ideal time to change that. Kilmarnock, Falkirk and Aberdeen have all left Greenhill Road with draws but MacPherson reckons beating the title challengers from Ibrox might just provide a springboard to safety for his side. The six points thrown away in those three home draws, plus the five dropped in Saints' last two away matches at Hamilton and Inverness, have left Saints joint second-bottom of the league. And that's not where MacPherson expected to find himself after knocking Celtic out of the Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup[1], usually known as the Scottish Cup, is the national cup knockout competition in Scottish football. The trophy awarded to the winners has the distinction of being the oldest national trophy in the world. last month. He said: "There are defining moments in matches when you have to stand up and be counted. We've arrived at that stage now. "We've been away from home twice since beating Celtic in the Cup. "A point from Hamilton and a clean sheet wasn't a bad result. A defeat in Inverness after taking the lead isn't a good result. "Our situation at the bottom is getting tighter every week and I have to find out if my players can handle the pressure on an individual basis. "I know I've got strong characters in my dressing room and I need each and every one of them to focus on the eight games we have left. "There's a pressure that comes from the expectation level placed on your team's shoulders. The only side who aren't lumbered with that burden are Hamilton on account of them being the promoted club from last season." MacPherson was in Accies' position when he took St Mirren up to the Premier League five years ago and the memory is etched etch v. etched, etch·ing, etch·es v.tr. 1. a. To cut into the surface of (glass, for example) by the action of acid. b. on his brain. He said:"We have five teams separated by six points at the foot of the league. Five years ago it was just us and Dunfermline. "The character I need now was shown then when we beat Dundee United and then Motherwell - after being two goals down at Fir Park Fir Park is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premier League club Motherwell F.C.. In 2007-08, Gretna F.C. - to beat the drop. "There was only one point in it at one stage but we stayed up and Dunfermline went down." Believer MacPherson's delight at dodging the relegation bullet in the Love Street days proved there can be no sentimentality Sentimentality Checkers dog given as gift to Nixon; used in his defense of political contributions during presidential campaign (1952). [Am. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 126] Dondi comic strip in which sentimentality is the main motif. in football. He was an ex-Dunfermline player but St Mirren paid his wages. The same rule will apply tomorrow night as the man who started his playing career at Rangers tries to sabotage their championship campaign while boosting his own team's chances of Premier League survival. He said: "I'm asking my players if they can handle the pressure. Do I know the answer in advance ? No I don't. "We haven't performed to standard since beating Celtic and that's mainly because we haven't passed the ball well enough. "I'm also a believer that if you take the lead in a match as we did at Inverness, you really ought to get something out of the game. "There are no excuses for the players. The break caused by the World Cup qualifiers helped contribute towards a stop-start season but that doesn't explain away Saturday's defeat." The last show of character and determination MacPherson got from his players came on the day they turned a 7-0 drubbing from Celtic in the league into a Cup occasion to savour one week later. The manager wants their Highland humbling to have a similar response. He said: "We had a go at Celtic in the Scottish Cup and we'll do the same to Rangers in the league. "The players might have thought the break the club paid for in Marbella recently would pay off on the park but it hasn't turned out that way so far. It was a marvellous gesture from the board. I met Dick Advocaat Richard Advocaat (born September 27, 1947 in The Hague, Netherlands) is the Dutch coach of the Russian pro soccer team Zenit. He has served as coach of his native Dutch national football team and more recently as the chief of South Korea national football team, earning the team's , the Zenit St Petersburg manager, there and he was amazed a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. to find a club our size at a facility as luxurious as the one we had. "But we're still waiting for the pay-off to come in the form of a win. "There was a time when we thought we were going for the top six. Now there's only frustration that so many games we felt we might win turned out to be draws. "There are eight matches left and we need to go into the five after the split in decent shape. That means getting the best possible result against Rangers." One bit of good news is that keeper Mark Howard has agreed a new two-year deal until 2011. CAPTION(S): I'M TALKING TO Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to YOU: MacPherson has told every Saints player they'll need bottle to stay up |
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