When St Johnstone last made the trip to Paisley it was a case of ‘needs must’ for ex-manager Steven MacLean as Nicky Clark returned to action following a long injury lay-off.
As another clash with the Buddies approaches this weekend, current boss Craig Levein has the benefit of a far more “robust” striker to call upon.
Levein has managed the former Dundee United attacker’s training workload and game-time in recent weeks to give him a strong platform for the last few months of the season.
And he’s optimistic that player and team will soon feel the benefit of that patience.
“Nicky has had two or three weeks’ full training with no incidents, no problem at all,” said Levein.
“So we’re at the stage now where I’m a lot more confident putting him back in.
“There’s no doubt he’s our best striker and all being well, he’ll get a run at it now.
“We brought in Benji (Kimpioka) and Adama (Sidibeh) in the window and I wanted to see what they could do by giving them games.
“And at the same time that has allowed me to let Nicky work his way back from his injury.
“The last thing I wanted to do was get him back from a calf injury, have him train for a few days and then put him straight back into the team again.
“That’s happened before and I understand why because of where the squad was at.
“The way we’ve worked it, he’s had time to get back into training properly and I think he’s robust enough now to get going again.
“The hope is we’ll get the benefit of giving him time to get himself really ready again.”
Young strikers can learn from Nicky Clark says Craig Levein
Levein believes both January recruits will complement Clark – and learn from playing alongside him.
“We’ve had a big consideration over when to play Nicky and there will be games where we’ll go with one up top, like we did against Rangers on Sunday,” he added.
“But in general I think he’s ready to go now, I have a lot more confidence now that he’s robust enough to cope.
“He’ll be able to help Benji and Adama because he’s got so much experience and that’s how players learn.
“I learned from listening to Sandy Jardine on the pitch and it’s the same for every player – there are always people in a team or a squad who can teach you things.
“So I’m hoping that whoever he plays with will benefit from his help because he’s such a clever striker.
“I think getting Nicky back and up to speed will really help those two.”
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