St Johnstone are two out of two in the Premier Sports Cup.
Benji Kimpioka scored twice in the first half to make life comfortable for Craig Levein’s side who remain in firm control of their Group F destiny.
Another couple of new signings made their debuts, with no significant injuries picked up.
Courier Sport picks out four talking points from, all in all, a good first home game of the season.
Emphatic
Another weekend and another cup shock that didn’t involve St Johnstone.
This time Hibs fans were the ones to get a July reality check.
Saints went from playing the lowest-ranked opponent in their group to the highest.
There needed to be a raising of standards – from middle to front, in particular – and there was.
Levein’s men were far quicker in making a forward pass and far less inclined to choose sideways or backwards options when there was no need to.
Kimpioka should have scored a hat-trick and had a decent shout for a penalty.
Substitutes Makenzie Kirk and Adama Sidibeh also had three glorious second half chances between them.
At the other end, Josh Rae only had one shot to save in the entire contest – and that was a tame injury-time free-kick straight at him.
You could argue that Saints now face two teams in better form than Brechin and Morton but there will be an expectation that they take care of League One, Alloa Athletic on Tuesday night and League Two, East Fife on Saturday just as convincingly.
It has been serene thus far.
The tricky balance between winning games, trying new things and getting minutes into legs is being struck.
Attacking full-backs
The sight of a full-back over-lapping a midfielder or forward has been all too infrequent at McDiarmid in recent seasons.
In Aaron Essel, Cammy MacPherson, Matt Smith and Graham Carey, Saints have players who can pick out a runner if there is one.
And on Saturday, Andre Raymond and David Keltjens both attacked space in front of them to give the passers that option.
When Kimpioka is the lone striker, a direct ball over the top or through a gap between centre-halves is one obvious route to goal.
But putting width on the game needs to be another.
The first goal was a perfect example of the latter – Keltjens turning over possession in his own half, quickly popping the ball into midfield and then driving forward to put a cross in for his centre-forward.
Every club has January signings who fall into the ‘he’ll benefit from a pre-season’ category and the Israeli is Saints’ prime example of that well-used football cliché.
The team’s offensive threat is all the stronger for it.
Outs
Transfer windows have different phases.
Now, after a wave of incomings, you suspect that the emphasis will be on the next batch of McDiarmid departures before the English loan market becomes a valuable resource in August.
Of the players who have been named in League Cup match-day squads, you could make a case that eight have the potential to get a career development loan, or one that will get a more experienced squad member the regular game-time he needs.
Ross Sinclair, Dare Olufunwa, Liam Parker, Max Kucheriavyi, Stevie May, Fran Franczak, Connor Smith and Taylor Steven all fall into one of those two categories.
Benji’s moment
Levein believes that the “penny has dropped” for Kimpioka in terms of what he will have to do to get a start in the St Johnstone team up front this season.
The manager’s observation that Adama Sidibeh is “miles off it”, combined with Nicky Clark and Uche Ikpeazu being sidelined, adds up to a sense of this being the former Sunderland striker’s window to seize the moment.
Kimpioka’s quick feet changed the game at Brechin and his goals did that job against Morton.
He’s now on the same St Johnstone career goals total (five) as Sidibeh.
You would imagine he’ll start again in midweek.
This really is a glorious opportunity for Kimpioka to make himself the main man up front.
He might not get a better one.
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