Waghorn out for 6 weeks

[RANGERRAB 3,260]

I don't think Clark will be offered a new contract,but he can go out and play for one,or at least put himself in the shop window for other clubs!

 

I think Clark, Law, Shiels & Templeton will all leave at the end of the season.

And I think MW will try to get rid off Bell too

[Zappa 0]

I don't think Clark will be offered a new contract,but he can go out and play for one,or at least put himself in the shop window for other clubs!

 

He's only 24/25, so there's a decent chance of him still improving if he's given the opportunity, especially under Mark Warburton's guidance.

[ian1964 10,416]

He's only 24/25, so there's a decent chance of him still improving if he's given the opportunity, especially under Mark Warburton's guidance.

 

His lack of game time is working against him though!,I had high hopes for him when we signed him but he has struggled to get a starting place under MW,FWIW I think MW already knows who is staying and who is leaving

[MacK1950 2,231]

Today's game proved that Clark is an out and out trier and even defended well at one stage but service to him from wide areas was lacking so his strengths were not brought into play as most were crosses.

[Bearman 9]

The service into the box is very poor, Clark is that type of striker who will put good balls to him away 75 times out of 100.

[RANGERRAB 3,260]

Clark is certainly a trier but nowhere near the quality we need up front

[ian1964 10,416]

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright fears he would lose HALF a team if the McDiarmid Park pitch turned plastic

 

CHAIRMAN Steve Brown admitted he might be forced to consider a plastic pitch in the future due to the state of the surface.

 

TOMMY WRIGHT fears he would lose half a team if St Johnstone installed a plastic pitch at McDiarmid Park.

 

But the Perth boss insists there is no chance of it happening in time for next season with Steven MacLean at the club.

 

Saints star striker MacLean has been told not to play on astroturf after suffering two serious injuries on synthetic surfaces.

 

Chairman Steve Brown admitted he might be forced to consider a plastic pitch in the future due to the state of the surface.

 

Rangers boss Mark Warburton recently called for a top flight ban on astro and Wright agrees it should be grass only in the Scottish Premiership.

 

And if St Johnstone are to go down the plastic route then it won’t be any time soon with MacLean having only recently signed a two year deal.

 

Captain Dave Mackay, Steven Anderson, Chris Millar and Murray Davidson would also struggle to play regularly on an artificial surface.

 

And Wright said: “The chairman has to consider it in the future but it will not be in for next season because we’ve got Steven MacLean and probably three or four other players who couldn’t play on it week in week out.

 

“In fact, the lads joked that six of them would be getting paid up if we put it down! From a sporting point of view it’s wrong that Steven Maclean is not available for certain games for us on medical advice.

 

“The chairman never said he was keen. He said he would consider it in the future and that makes him a responsible chairman. If he makes a decision to put it in I have to accept it but I can’t see it in the near future.

 

“We have players who can’t play on it, players who couldn’t play on it regularly. It has been a freakish winter with the amount of rain we have had and the water table is high. Pitches have struggled and ours isn’t the worst.”

 

Wright remains firmly in favour of grass pitches and believes clubs should get together with the SPFL and look at ways of improving the preferred surface for players.

 

Artificial heat lamps are common in England to cultivate the grass but cost clubs up to £30,000 and the Saints gaffer one possibility is for Scottish sides to split the cost.

 

He said: “Look at the pitches in England. They used to be shocking but now they are very good because of huge investment. I know some clubs have lamps to help the grass grow over the winter and maybe we should be working together and sharing costs.

 

“Should the SPFL be giving clubs money? No, but I think collectively the duty is with the clubs. I don’t know if funding is available but clubs should work together.

 

“I don’t know what lights costs but why can’t Dundee, Dundee United and us share lights? There must be ways we can work together to cut costs and improve the pitches.

 

“Grass won’t go away. The majority of teams want to play on grass and the majority of players would probably prefer to play on a poor grass pitch than an astro.

 

“I genuinely believe that in the top league we shouldn’t have plastic pitches. I’m still in the grass camp but if if you were to put a plastic pitch down then it has to be of the highest quality and also preferably has to be only used on a matchday or first team training.”

 

Wright won’t be signing Julien Faubert after the former Real Madrid and West Ham man left Perth yesterday after receiving other offers from abroad.

 

But he did add to his squad yesterday as Bulgarian defender Plamen Krachunov, 27, agreed a deal until the end of the season after impressing on trial.

 

Krachunov said: “Saints have qualified for Europe in the last four seasons and I will do what I can to help them qualify again.”

 

Saints head to Firhill tonight after ending a nine-game winless run with a 2-1 victory against Motherwell at the weekend. And Wright said: “The dressing room was buzzing on Saturday but you can’t take anything for granted in this league.

 

“It’s good to get the win - it puts us back in the top six and keeps us in touch with Ross County - and if we can get something from this game we can put real pressure on the teams above us. A draw would actually take us fourth on goal difference so the win came at the right time.”

 

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/st-johnstone-manager-tommy-wright-7420108#SOUw2syATvrJj8kG.99

[JTP 0]

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright fears he would lose HALF a team if the McDiarmid Park pitch turned plastic

 

CHAIRMAN Steve Brown admitted he might be forced to consider a plastic pitch in the future due to the state of the surface.

 

TOMMY WRIGHT fears he would lose half a team if St Johnstone installed a plastic pitch at McDiarmid Park.

 

But the Perth boss insists there is no chance of it happening in time for next season with Steven MacLean at the club.

 

Saints star striker MacLean has been told not to play on astroturf after suffering two serious injuries on synthetic surfaces.

 

Chairman Steve Brown admitted he might be forced to consider a plastic pitch in the future due to the state of the surface.

 

Rangers boss Mark Warburton recently called for a top flight ban on astro and Wright agrees it should be grass only in the Scottish Premiership.

 

And if St Johnstone are to go down the plastic route then it won’t be any time soon with MacLean having only recently signed a two year deal.

 

Captain Dave Mackay, Steven Anderson, Chris Millar and Murray Davidson would also struggle to play regularly on an artificial surface.

 

And Wright said: “The chairman has to consider it in the future but it will not be in for next season because we’ve got Steven MacLean and probably three or four other players who couldn’t play on it week in week out.

 

“In fact, the lads joked that six of them would be getting paid up if we put it down! From a sporting point of view it’s wrong that Steven Maclean is not available for certain games for us on medical advice.

 

“The chairman never said he was keen. He said he would consider it in the future and that makes him a responsible chairman. If he makes a decision to put it in I have to accept it but I can’t see it in the near future.

 

“We have players who can’t play on it, players who couldn’t play on it regularly. It has been a freakish winter with the amount of rain we have had and the water table is high. Pitches have struggled and ours isn’t the worst.”

 

Wright remains firmly in favour of grass pitches and believes clubs should get together with the SPFL and look at ways of improving the preferred surface for players.

 

Artificial heat lamps are common in England to cultivate the grass but cost clubs up to £30,000 and the Saints gaffer one possibility is for Scottish sides to split the cost.

 

He said: “Look at the pitches in England. They used to be shocking but now they are very good because of huge investment. I know some clubs have lamps to help the grass grow over the winter and maybe we should be working together and sharing costs.

 

“Should the SPFL be giving clubs money? No, but I think collectively the duty is with the clubs. I don’t know if funding is available but clubs should work together.

 

“I don’t know what lights costs but why can’t Dundee, Dundee United and us share lights? There must be ways we can work together to cut costs and improve the pitches.

 

“Grass won’t go away. The majority of teams want to play on grass and the majority of players would probably prefer to play on a poor grass pitch than an astro.

 

“I genuinely believe that in the top league we shouldn’t have plastic pitches. I’m still in the grass camp but if if you were to put a plastic pitch down then it has to be of the highest quality and also preferably has to be only used on a matchday or first team training.”

 

Wright won’t be signing Julien Faubert after the former Real Madrid and West Ham man left Perth yesterday after receiving other offers from abroad.

 

But he did add to his squad yesterday as Bulgarian defender Plamen Krachunov, 27, agreed a deal until the end of the season after impressing on trial.

 

Krachunov said: “Saints have qualified for Europe in the last four seasons and I will do what I can to help them qualify again.”

 

Saints head to Firhill tonight after ending a nine-game winless run with a 2-1 victory against Motherwell at the weekend. And Wright said: “The dressing room was buzzing on Saturday but you can’t take anything for granted in this league.

 

“It’s good to get the win - it puts us back in the top six and keeps us in touch with Ross County - and if we can get something from this game we can put real pressure on the teams above us. A draw would actually take us fourth on goal difference so the win came at the right time.”

 

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/st-johnstone-manager-tommy-wright-7420108#SOUw2syATvrJj8kG.99

 

I'll expect this to be a back page headline then, Wright wants artificial banned too ..................

[ian1964 10,416]

Opinion: SFA must get real in row over plastic pitches

 

February 23rd, 2016 - 12:08 am Martin Hannan

 

PRACTICALLY since they were first invented and installed more than 50 years ago, plastic pitches for a variety of sports have been the subject of constant and considerable debate.

 

They have been at the heart of several recent rammies in Scottish sport – the Professional Footballers Association’s Scottish division started the most recent debate by claiming that the majority of its members would prefer to play on a deteriorating grass pitch than plastic.

 

The Scottish Football Association responded with a stinging rebuke that didn’t actually address the issue that PFA Scotland was raising – the lack of research on injuries caused to players by playing on plastic. And remember that Steven MacLean of St Johnstone cannot play on it due to medical advice. Rangers manager Mark Warburton’s detestation of them made headlines after the Ibrox club’s top scorer Martyn Waghorn was injured on Kilmarnock’s plastic surface.

 

For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the “unforgiving” nature of the Rugby Park surface, as Warburton described it, did indeed contribute to the seriousness of Waghorn’s injury, but several studies in the USA, where American Football has been played for many years on FieldTurf, as they call it, show that the incidence of injury is actually less on plastic than grass, though ‘turf toe’ is a recognised condition caused by playing on plastic.

 

So what does Scottish football, and Scottish sport generally, do about this issue? Knowing the SFA, they will do damn all that might cost them money, and will hide behind the Fifa statutes that permit such plastic pitches to be installed where climate conditions dictate their use.

 

Older readers may recall the original name for the surface – AstroTurf, so called because it was developed for the Astrodome in Houston which opened almost 51 years ago on April 9, 1965. AstroTurf remains a trademark, but most people these days simply refer to plastic pitches, even though many newer surfaces such as that of Murrayfield are actually hybrids, consisting of natural grass reinforced by artificial fibres.

 

That Desso hybrid pitch is almost certainly going to be installed at Scotstoun after the ruination of Glasgow Warriors’ season by the weather, which points to the biggest plus about plastic – you can play on it in any weather bar heavy snow and ice.

 

Now as Partick Thistle fans would miserably testify, grass surfaces tend to have vastly more postponements due to the weather – an important consideration when a lot of clubs need fortnightly cash injections just to survive. Yet should we allow economic matters dictate how the game is played in Scotland? What about other points such as injuries and the sheer unfairness of some clubs having plastic and others not?

 

Do they actually change the game? Of course they do, as Kenny Miller of Rangers willingly testified after his wonderful volleyed goal won the match for Rangers on plastic Palmerston Park on Sunday. “It probably wouldn’t have happened on grass – it wouldn’t have bounced that high,” said Miller of his 100th goal in Scottish league football.

 

Players, though, adjust to them quite well in the main, it seems, not least because a lot of clubs have plastic training surfaces. Yet it is a simple fact that most footballers would prefer to play on grass. The reason is simple – there is a perception on the part of players, managers and fans that playing on an artificial surface causes injury and ill-health. And the harsh truth is that due to the ineptitude of football’s authorities in this country, and the vested interests of some club directors, there is no hard evidence in existence to either prove or disprove the case for plastic.

 

I find it quite staggering that there has been no research in Scottish football into the number and types of injuries caused to players by playing on plastic. Footballers are among the most cosseted individuals in sport, yet their clubs put them out to play on a surface which could be damaging them. Oh, that will be money, then.

 

For instance, several managers and club doctors over the years have stated that there is a greater risk of long-term conditions such as osteoarthritis of the knee, ankle and hip from playing on plastic. No one can say that with certainty, however, as no one has actually checked.

 

John Hughes, of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, was adamant about the biggest issue to do with plastic: “Just tell the truth, it’s the injuries. You pick up joint problems, knee problems, ankle, hip problems.”

 

Research needs to happen to see whether Hughes is right. The SFA must commission medial research as soon as possible, and the researchers can start by asking Steven MacLean.

 

This is what he said recently: “A few years ago I played on AstroTurf and a week or so later I had to go and see the surgeon. I needed an operation as I had a micro fracture. Then the same happened about a year later.

 

“I spoke to the surgeon and he advised me not to play on the AstroTurf. Now when an AstroTurf game comes around the gaffer just tells me straight away I will not be playing.”

 

Come on SFA, do the decent thing, or will it have to take a court case for compensation before the governing body does something?

 

http://www.thenational.scot/sport/opinion-sfa-must-get-real-in-row-over-plastic-pitches.14094

[ian1964 10,416]

If you're playing in the top flight of Scottish football you should be able to maintain a grass pitch, and if you can't afford to maintain a grass pitch then it is clear some are living beyond their means!