Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

4 St Johnstone talking points as Craig Levein ‘miles off it’ Adama Sidibeh comment backs up theory this is Benji Kimpioka’s big chance

The Perth club cruised to victory over Morton at McDiarmid Park.

Craig Levein was happy with Benji Kimpioka's display against Morton.
Craig Levein was happy with Benji Kimpioka's display against Morton. Images: SNS.

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.

Benji Kimpioka was brought down in the box.
Benji Kimpioka was brought down in the box. Image: SNS.

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.

David Keltjens put in a great cross for Benji Kimpioka to make it 1-0.
David Keltjens put in a great cross for Benji Kimpioka to make it 1-0. Image: SNS.

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.

Adama Sidibeh came on for the second half.
Adama Sidibeh came on for the second half. Image: SNS.

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.

Conversation