Simo Valakari hopes St Johnstone’s first headed goal of the season becomes the first of many.
Mackenzie Kirk’s superb run and finish, from Andre Raymond’s pinpoint cross, was enough to secure a massive three points for Saints in their weekend clash with Kilmarnock.
Incredibly, it was a route to goal the Perth side had not previously travelled this term.
But Valakari, who was delighted to see his side digging deep for victory, expects that to change going forward
“We have been working on crossing zones – when we get the ball, how we want to cross the ball and where the strikers are moving,” he said.
“We have been okay getting to the final third but we have not had that many touches in the opponent’s box, so we need to become more dangerous. That was a very, very pleasing thing.
“I want to see more goals like this one. It was the first headed goal of the season – but we have strikers who can head the ball.
“We have been very honest with each other – our delivery has not been good. The quality has not been there.
“Then there is the timing of the striker’s run.
“On Saturday, it was one versus one in the box, Mackenzie’s movement was good to the blind side of the defender, then a full speed run, and when you commit yourself, it’s just a matter of putting the ball in the right place and the finish comes.”
Valakari’s developing Perth team showed more of their combative side against a physical Kilmarnock outfit.
Given Killie’s approach, plus tough conditions, Saints’ attempts at a possession-based game were thwarted, particularly in the first half.
But after weathering a figurative storm – as well as the morning’s literal one – they grew into the contest and turned in a performance the manager hopes fuels their self-belief.
Valakari said: “Why I was so happy about the game on Saturday is because it would have been so easy to say: ‘Bad conditions, Kilmarnock, a tough team – okay we can’t play’.
“But we tried to play. It was not easy and it was not successful. But that’s always our starting point – we try to play. Then we need to adapt for the opponent and the conditions.
“It was so important [to grind out a win]. We have played better before than we did on Saturday, but then we have given up a goal.
“Kilmarnock put a lot of pressure on us in the first half, they had many set pieces, and it would have been easy to sit at half-time and say: ‘This is not working. We have lost this match.’
“But the boys believed and they went out and scored a good goal.
“So it was important, not just for me, because I know they have it inside them, but it was important for them; for the goalkeeper to get a clean sheet, for the defenders to get a clean sheet and to score a goal – and a goal exactly like what we have been training.”
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