St Johnstone’s SAS strike partnership reached double figures at Kilmarnock at the weekend and keeper Peter Enckelman revealed that the Sandaza-and-Sheridan effect has invigorated all parts of the Perth team.
The Spaniard took his goal tally to six, and the Irishman to four as they provided further evidence that Saints now have one of the most prolific frontlines in the country.
It wasn’t that long ago the end of last season that a goal conceded would often spell game over for the McDiarmid Park side, such was their lack of a killer touch.
As Killie found out in their 2-1 defeat at Rugby Park on Saturday, however, the new-look St Johnstone have a much more ruthless edge, and according to Enckelman it’s completely changed their psyche.
The Finnish international said: “It helps the whole team to know that we’ve got two strikers who are scoring goals.
“It takes the pressure off because you don’t feel that if we miss an opportunity then that’s our chance in the match gone.
“We don’t get down because we know that we’ll get more chances and one of them is likely to score.
“And if we lose one we don’t think we’re automatically going to lose the game. Last season if the opposition scored you thought: ‘Can we get another one ourselves?'”
Sandaza gave Saints the lead on 22 minutes after he latched on to a David Robertson through ball and steered his shot past Cammy Bell.
The hosts equalised on 36 minutes when an unfortunate Steven Anderson sent a looping header over Enckelman into the top corner.
Before and after the leveller the former Aston Villa keeper produced an array of fine saves and Saints soaked up the Killie pressure before grabbing a winner with just over 15 minutes left.
Mohammadou Sissoko clumsily gave away possession in defence and Sandaza picked out Sheridan. He rounded Bell and finished from a tight angle to complete a four-goal week.
On the early-season evidence a top-six finish should be the least of Saints’ ambitions this year but Enckelman insisted the management and players are not looking too far ahead.
“From our point of view we just want to get points on the board as quickly as possible. You can separate it into three sets of 11 before the split and we want to make sure we give ourselves a bit of breathing space, because it makes it so much easier to go out and play with freedom. That’s showing already.”
He added: “We can’t afford to get comfortable even though we’ve got 15 points, which is a great start. We didn’t get that in the last two seasons. We’re in the top half of the table and we need to make sure we stay there by keeping piling the points up.”
Saints fans would love to see Sheridan and Sandaza putting down roots in Perth, but manager Derek McInnes admitted: “My worry is everybody keeps talking about them and other clubs come looking. That’s a real concern.
“We were fortunate to get both players in our budget and we’ll enjoy working with them as long as they’re here.
“There was a temptation to bring Cillian out a few weeks ago but we felt it was a partnership worth persevering with. He has electric pace and he knows how much confidence I have in him.
“He’s scored four goals in three games since and the two of them are posing a real threat. When you’ve got that in the team it gives the players real confidence.”
McInnes felt “the best team won” but Killie boss Kenny Shiels certainly had a different take on the match.
He said: “We’ve lost a game we should have won. For the winning goal my centre half tried to bring the ball down and miscontrolled it. How can I criticise him when I told him to do that?
“That’s another game where we entertained the public and we must be faithful to our football philosophy.”