Adama Sidibeh ended a six-month goal drought to send St Johnstone into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
The Perth striker diverted a long-range Graham Carey shot into the Hamilton Accies’ net with time running out, having only been on the pitch for three minutes.
The “instinct” finish was Sidibeh at his best, according to head coach, Simo Valakari.
And he’s hoping that a weight has now been taken off the Gambian international’s shoulders.
“It was a very good striker’s goal,” said Valakari.
“That’s Adama. He plays with his instincts.
“In this moment he didn’t have time to think.
“He’s a good striker but when you’re not scoring goals, you think about it too much.
“That means your actions become slower and you become too safe.
“In this moment he just played with his instincts, and we saw the end result.
“I’m very, very pleased for him.
“We all know the life of a striker – from one moment like that, everything can change.
“Now he has to be positive – play to his strengths and let things flow.
“Just go and play.”
Stuck to the game plan
Saints have now won four games in a row for the first time since January, 2019.
And Valakari praised his players for not being spooked by the long wait for a goal.
“It was a classic cup tie,” he said. “The most important thing was to get into the next round and we’ve done that.
“Credit to our opponent.
“They came with a good game plan and they were solid but I have to give big credit to our players for how they handled this situation.
“We played very comfortably under difficult circumstances. We knew that if we made one mistake the opponent could score and we were out.
“But we didn’t think about that – we were only thinking about how we can score.
“We didn’t rush things.
“The boys stuck to what we wanted them to do, and we had belief that the goal would come.”
Saints had five glorious opportunities to score before Sidibeh’s late winner – three of them for Makenzie Kirk.
Valakari loves the fact that the former Hearts man doesn’t let missed opportunities get him down.
“When you analyse the games he hasn’t scored, in every one he has had one good chance minimum,” he said.
“For me, that is the sign of a good striker.
“He keeps putting himself in the right positions. He’s going to miss chances, but he’ll always be there for the next chance.”
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