St Johnstone will be a “front foot team” this season, according to recent recruit Lewis Neilson.
And the loan defender from Hearts believes the green shoots of a style transformation at McDiarmid Park are already showing.
It didn’t produce the desired result, but there was a more positive mindset underpinning Saints’ football in the 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen.
Neilson knows there is plenty of scope for improvement when Saints travel to play Kilmarnock on Sunday.
But the attacking intent has progressed from one season to another.
“We want to be a front-foot team, get the ball forward, get into the box and score more goals,” said the former Scotland under-21 international.
“I think we showed that in spells against Aberdeen.
“All week we worked on a high press from Aberdeen’s goal kicks and even when I got on the ball, I was getting forward.
“I was up overlapping Drey (Wright) at times and that’s something we’ll hopefully continue.
“We definitely want to be a more attacking team this season and there’s more to come.
“We have players who can score goals so if the chances come, I’m sure we’ll put them away.”
Neilson on former team-mates…
Two of those players, who combined superbly in the move that led to Saints’ late goal, are strikers Neilson knows well.
“Makenzie (Kirk) is a great player,” said the 21-year-old.
“He wasn’t getting a chance in the Hearts first team so this is a good move for him.
“He has made an impact so fair play to him. He was very good when he came on and showed what he’s about.
“I’ve seen plenty of him at Hearts and, 100% percent, I think he can play and score goals at this level.
“He will learn from Nicky (Clark).
“I know Nicky from Dundee United. He’s a really good player who has his own attributes.
“He brings something different to our other strikers and he’ll help the young strikers we’ve got because he’s got such an experienced head on him.
“Nicky will be a vital player for us this season.”
Perth men ‘need to be better’
Saints plan to show that quick lessons have been learned going into their second league match of the season at Rugby Park on Sunday.
“The Aberdeen game was really frustrating because we started it really well,” said Neilson.
“They came into it so we changed our shape a bit and after that I thought we controlled large spells of the game.
“We can take a lot of confidence, although the goals we lost were sloppy.
“We didn’t pick up a man at a set-piece and for the second one I can do better because I got drawn inside.
“It was a good counter-attack goal from their point of view but we need to be better to prevent that.
“We pushed towards the end, got the goal and with the nine minutes of added time we felt we could get another one.
“So we were really disappointed to not get something from the game.
“I think there were a lot of positives – we don’t plan to be down at the bottom of the table this season again.
“So there were a lot of frustrated boys in the dressing-room at the end but that’s a good thing and we need to be better in the next game.”
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