If Peter Enckelman decides to join the ever expanding contingent of former English league players at St Johnstone it will be a move the Finnish international won’t regret, Perth captain Jody Morris has pledged.
The former Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper, who has 12 caps for his country, was an impressive performer for Saints in their 1-0 friendly win over Real Valladolid at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
If manager Derek McInnes needed reassurance that the 33-year-old still has good years ahead of him, his clean-sheet trial performance will have done the job.
Skipper Morris was also won over and would be delighted if Enckelman followed the lead of himself, Michael Duberry, Sam Parkin, Cleveland Taylor, Scott Dobie and Marcus Haber in swapping football south of the border for north.
He said, “We might soon need to change the Friday training match of young versus old to Scotland versus the rest of the world at this rate. Obviously there are a few of us who have come to Scotland without knowing a lot about the game up here, but once you see the set-up at the club and meet the lads, you know you’ve made the right decision. New additions are always made to feel really welcome by the boys.”
For most football followers the incident Enckelman is most remembered for during his time in the Premiership is letting a throw-in slip under his foot and into his goal during a Birmingham derby while he was Aston Villa’s keeper.
McInnes wasn’t being drawn on the prospects of Enckelman being signed up this week. He stated, “We’ll need to see how things develop. We’ll have a better idea of where we are by Monday or Tuesday.
“He only joined us for training yesterday (Friday) without doing any specific goalkeeping work but he wanted to play and was excellent. He had a bit more work to do than I would have liked, to be honest. He took crosses, made saves and kicked well. He deserved to be well pleased with his performance.”
The same couldn’t be said for the rest of the Saints team in the first 45 minutes, by the manager’s own admission.
“We were really disappointing. We stood off them and let them play. We weren’t taking part in the game. I wouldn’t have liked to have taken that into our first league game against Hearts next weekend but the second half was much better.”
Both his starting centre-backs against the Spaniards, Michael Duberry and Kevin Rutkiewicz, had to be withdrawn because of niggles the former a groin problem and the latter a calf strain.
With options at the back not as plentiful as in other positions, McInnes will be hoping they don’t prove to be more serious than first thought. The match itself was lacking in goalmouth action, with Valladolid well polished in possession but offering up little in the form of a cutting edge.
They preceded the Saints match with 0-0 draws against Inverness Caley Thistle and Kilmarnock, so Saints were the first Scottish team to get the better of them on their tour, which will now involve a closed-doors game against Celtic.
The goal that settled the game came less than a minute into the second period when Haber headed home a Liam Craig corner at the back post.
Even a veteran like Morris is still excited by the prospect of another season getting under way.
“Our main priority will be to make ourselves safe from relegation as soon as possible and if we perform as well as we did last year I’m sure we’ll be alright.”