St Johnstone have given their season lift-off before Simo Valakari has been able to get properly stuck into his new job at McDiarmid Park.
And Drey Wright believes there is plenty of scope for the Finnish boss to build on Saturday’s drought–ending victory over Ross County.
The “energy” the Perth players brought to the contest was a big factor in achieving a first home league win in 10 months.
There were also hints of a Valakari-inspired front-footed approach to the game, which enthused home fans.
Once Craig Levein’s successor gets his work permit and is allowed to be fully hands-on, Wright is excited to see how much more improvement is still to come over the next few weeks and months.
“We’ve not had the chance to properly work with the manager yet,” said the full-back.
“But I think his enthusiasm and energy, as well as his style of play that he wants to see, will be really good for us.
“Hopefully today is the start of it and we can build on this.
“I think you saw a different side to us.
“It was a good performance from us – lot of energy.
“As a whole we were really good, we defended well.
“I don’t recall them causing us any real problems. They’re a big team but we dealt with that well and imposed our style on them.
“That was the main thing.
“We’ve shown we can do it now so that’s got to be the benchmark going into next week.
“We can replicate it and we can even be better when we get to work with the manager on his style of play.
“The positives will come from it. Hopefully it’s good times coming.”
On his own display, Wright reflected: “That was possibly my best game of the season.
“It felt like I’d been waiting to have a performance this season to kind of kick-start my own year.
“Hopefully that was it. That’s probably the best I’ve been.”
Pace back in the team
Benji Kimpioka and Adama Sidibeh were back as a starting partnership for the first time since the end of August.
The rediscovered power and speed that Saints have in their attack was key to making this a one-sided fixture.
“The raw pace they’ve got is such a threat,” said Wright.
“Defenders are always worried about being done in behind so it frees up others to have space and get on the ball.
“They combined brilliantly for the first goal. Benji was a threat all day long. Adama could have got a couple of goals himself but sometimes it’s not going to work out for both of them.
“He still put in a massive shift and caused all sorts of problems for their back line.
“I tend to try and avoid both of them in training as much as possible! It’s tough.
“But I actually did Benji a few weeks ago. He tried to run me down the line and I managed to nick the ball off him and say: ‘Nah, not today’.
“But it is tough. They are a constant threat.
“They’re fine-tuning a few things about awareness on the pitch and defensive shape but you can see the progress they’re making. It’s a frightening partnership for defences.”
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