Kyle Cameron is thrilled to see how Benji Kimpioka has blossomed into a Scottish top flight striker – three years on from their last league match together.
Cameron, St Johnstone’s new captain, and on-form striker Kimpioka will be key figures tonight as the Premiership campaign kicks off against Aberdeen.
At Torquay in 2020/21, when the pair first teamed up, they were trying to impress in an ultimately unsuccessful National League promotion attempt.
Ex-Newcastle prospect Cameron was in his third and final season with the Gulls.
Kimpioka had also left the north east, on a loan from Sunderland, and failed to score in 10 outings.
It was the first of two underwhelming non-league loans as the bright promise Kimpioka showed for the Black Cats as a teen continued to dim.
The Swede found his way to Perth via a spell back home with AIK Solna and Cameron loves what he sees today.
Cameron said: “Benji is doing really well. Five goals already this season and playing with loads of confidence.
“It’s great to see because, when I first met him, you could tell there was a really good player in there.
“He was a very raw, young boy who had to learn a lot about the game and develop.
“He’s always had that electric pace. Now I can see he’s a lot more composed and knows how to use his assets much better.
“He’s a more clever and smarter player. He knows when to run and how to time his runs.
“He was clinical in the cup and scored all kinds of goals. Benji isn’t one-dimensional; he can do lots of different things and has that killer instinct all good strikers need.
“Hopefully he keeps his form going into the league – and gets even better.”
Saints defenders were under intense strain last season to eke out points while the side struggled to score.
Cameron didn’t dig too deeply into the recent past when completing his loan switch from Notts County.
Purely looking at the present, the centre half is impressed by Craig Levein’s striker provision.
Cameron, 27, said: “I didn’t look back at too much because you don’t want to get bogged down and lost in the same mindset.
“I think we’ve a decent mix of strikers here. There’s real pace in Benji and Adama (Sidibeh).
“Nicky Clark has always scored goals and we’ve Uche (Ikpeazu) to come back from injury. There’s an abundance of quality.
“As a defender, that firepower is good. If you have a lot of threats in your team, that eases the burden on everyone.”
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