Talking Points: St Johnstone vs Kilmarnock
Five talking points as St Johnstone defeat Kilmarnock 4-3. Strong first-half from the Saints. Last season’s Championship winners made their return to the top flight against Kilmarnock, and in the opening period, they looked comfortable. The patterns of play, looked decent defensively (goal aside) and created enough chances to go into the interval ahead, however, Kiltie’s strike in the tail end of the half meant that despite all of the Saints’ positive play, the sides went in level. A sensational second period. The second-half was quite brilliant. The Saints hit the front less than two minutes into it, when Diabate headed home from a corner, however, Hugill equalised just over a minute later. On 53 minutes, Holt found his own net after the ball came off him following a save from Steward. With just over twenty minutes remaining, a dangerous ball into the box came off a Kilmarnock defender and found the bottom corner. And with ten minutes to go, substitute Fotheringham, who looked sharp during his cameo off the bench, found the corner after receiving the ball from Fowler, to give St Johnstone three points on opening weekend. Saints show character. Last campaign, Simo Valakari’s men were solid on home soil, winning eleven, drawing six and only losing one and based on the performance produced against Kilmarnock, it is clear to see how. After conceding two cheap goals in quick succession, it would have been easy for the heads to drop, however, they didn’t let the goals derail them and kept pushing, and got their reward, scoring two in just over ten minutes to secure the three points, which shows that St Johnstone can compete at this level and will not give up, which is a huge testament to manager Simo Valakari, who has clearly got the buy in from the players, which is helped by the fact that ten of the starting XI were at the club last season. Dire defensive display. For the first St Johnstone goal, Tshibola lost control of the ball, then no one picked up Fowler in the penalty area, who converted into the bottom corner. The second goal came from a corner which was met by Diabate, who didn’t even have to jump to meet the ball in the air. And the third goal came from a free kick, which found its way in off of Schjønning-Larsen. Although Kilmarnock were decent going forward, defensively they were very poor, especially from set pieces, which was unexpected due to their League Cup campaign, where they didn’t concede a single goal. On the other hand, they only scored two goals in four games, which they managed to better in 20 minutes of action, which is a slight positive that Neil McCann can take from the game. Alarming signs for Kilmarnock from a defensive perspective with the champions Celtic on the horizon. Fantastic Fowler There were several standouts for St Johnstone, including Gullan, who created five chances (the most in the match) and picked up two assists, Fotheringham, who came off the bench to score the winner and Josh Fowler, who led the line terrifically for St Johnstone. The former Queen’s Park striker took his only chance of the match, slotting the ball past the Kilmarnock goalkeeper, set up the winner and looked comfortable on the ball. The Saints will be hoping from more of that from their number nine for the remainder of the campaign.
Phillips Hails “Perfect” St Mirren Performance
St Mirren talisman Killian Phillips is determined to add more goals to his game after opening the season with a double against Falkirk. The midfielder poked home at the near post after 11 minutes before applying the finishing touch to a swift counterattack in the 87th minute, sealing a clinical 2-0 victory at the Falkirk Stadium. Despite his match-winning contribution, Phillips was quick to highlight the collective effort behind the result. “It’s something I need to add to my game: numbers. So I’m over the moon to get two goals,” Phillips said. “It was a good team performance. I know I could have had a couple more, and we could have scored a couple more as well.” The Buddies successfully navigated the Premiership play-offs against Partick Thistle last season, but goals proved hard to come by throughout the campaign. St Mirren finished as the league’s lowest scorers with just 30 goals, 10 fewer than relegated Livingston, and Phillips acknowledged that is an area that must improve this season. “On another day, those missed chances could have cost us. Last season, we probably struggled to create a lot of chances, so to have as many opportunities as we did today is more of a positive than a negative. “It’s a perfect opening-day performance.” St Mirren return to league action against St Johnstone at the SMISA Stadium on Saturday and will be eager to build on an encouraging start following their impressive victory in Falkirk.