St Johnstone are into the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup.
On Saturday, they produced an emphatic final game victory over East Fife that proved to be enough to top Group F on nine points after Alloa were beaten by Morton.
It was the first time a St Johnstone team had scored five goals since October, 2020 at Hamilton and the first time in front of supporters since Steven MacLean’s last game for the club at Motherwell in May, 2018.
Courier Sport picks out three talking points from a match that saw Saints achieve their first mini-goal of the season.
And relax (for a bit)
They needed that – goals, a convincing victory and Alloa slipping up at Cappielow.
It might not last but a bit of calm and perspective has been restored.
Saints were bad in midweek, very bad.
But there was a freakish feel to the performance and outcome in Alloa and a misguided team selection underpinned it.
With Graham Carey, Drey Wright, Kyle Cameron and a healthy Sam McClelland back in the side, and two pacey strikers up front, the foundation to dominate their opposition was in place on this occasion.
Central midfield was an area of mild concern for a chunk of the second half but, all in all, Saints played well.
If you take Tuesday night out of the graph, the form curve has been moving upwards game after game, which is as it should be at this stage of the season.
Is the squad equipped for a long league campaign?
Absolutely, not.
Should the first-choice team be competitive against Aberdeen on the opening night of the Premiership and capable of winning?
Absolutely, yes.
Key to success – which would be keeping themselves out of the relegation battle – will be the quality of Craig Levein’s last three or four signings.
But, as it stands, Saints are miles ahead of where they were this time last year.
And they won’t have a free weekend in mid-August for a change.
The starting partnership
It’s hard to recall the beginning of a season (any point of a season) when the main area of strength in a St Johnstone squad is its centre-forwards.
Whichever side of the Stevie May exit debate you sit on, for the club legend, who was top scorer as recently as 2022/23 to be sixth choice striker at McDiarmid Park is a remarkable transformation.
As things stand, the partnership was reunited on Saturday for the first time since Dens Park in February looks like the best bet to take the game to Aberdeen a week on Monday.
Adama Sidibeh visibly tired around the hour mark and doesn’t have a full game in him yet.
But Benji Kimpioka does – the run and goal in injury-time shows you how fit he is.
And, for the first half of this contest, they linked up very effectively.
There are enough differences in their styles of play to complement each other outside the box, while both attack the near post to take advantage of crosses that are now coming in from both sides of the pitch.
Yes, it’s the Premier Sports Cup against lower league opposition, but Kimpioka is now on the same goals total that Sidibeh finished on last season (five) and just two behind Nicky Clark’s seven, which was the 2023/24 best at the club.
With the last few pieces of the recruitment puzzle yet to be put in place, I’ll hold off as long as possible before predicting what type of season Saints fans will enjoy (or endure).
But I’m happy to make one pledge here and now – they won’t end up on a goal-scoring total of less than 30 this time around.
Supersub
The sight of a young striker (a player of any position, actually) scoring his first goal in senior football will always be special.
Makenzie Kirk is up and running.
The ‘project player’ v ‘Premiership-ready’ debate in the Perth fan base is a valid one and, as stated above, we’ll only know if it has lurched too far to the former than the latter when the transfer window has closed.
But what can be said already is that any talk of Kirk’s arrival to work with his dad, Andy, being some sort of nepotistic transaction is utter garbage.
This is exactly the sort of signing Saints should be making.
Kirk has attributes that can’t be taught or honed – speed and strength.
He’s also got an ability to operate on a defender’s shoulder and keep his shots on target.
That’s two one v ones in two McDiarmid Park substitute appearances – he forced the Morton keeper to make a save with the first and beat the East Fife keeper to score with his second.
It’s not a scientific poll by any means but I’ve spoken to people in academy football who believe Hearts have made a big mistake letting Kirk go.
For Saints, he could well be the perfect supersub this season, the type of centre-forward tiring centre-backs really don’t want to come up against, having attempted to match the runs of Kimpioka and Sidibeh for an hour and a bit.
And, in the long-term, with the rough edges polished and his innate penalty box instincts afforded greater game-time in which to flourish, Kirk could turn into so much more than an impact player.
The ceiling is high.
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