St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright has challenged young midfield duo Liam Caddis and Scott Brown to seize their opportunity at becoming first team regulars.
The pair have had game-time in the Europa League this season and previously but haven’t managed to nail down a starting slot in Wright’s side on a long-term basis.
Injuries in midfield have thrust them back into top team contention for the league opener at Hearts next weekend, and the Saints manager is now looking for them to make the next step up.
“This is a big season for both Liam and Scott,” he said.
“Scott played a lot at the start of last season but we changed the team after a bad run and he couldn’t get in.
“We kicked on after that and he didn’t really force his way in.
“So we’re looking for him to really push this season, he’s looked good this summer so far.”
Wright added: “I have picked Liam Caddis for a lot of our bigger games in the last few years.
“He’s played away from home in Europe for us.
“What he has to do now is make sure he’s getting a start when it isn’t those bigger games, if you can call them that.
“He needs to start making it difficult for me to keep him out of the team.
“It’s an important year for him, he needs to establish himself and I’ve already had that conversation with him.
“He’s got the ability, I wouldn’t have signed him again if I didn’t believe in him, but sometimes I think he needs to believe in himself more.”
A home match against Blackpool tomorrow will be Saints’ last before the season starts.
“I’m happy with how we’ve responded to going out of Europe,” Wright pointed out.
“We’ve taken it on the chin and moved on.
“Since then we have put in two good performances against Real Sociedad and Queen of the South.
“So hopefully we’ll keep that going against Blackpool this weekend as the final bit of our build-up to the Hearts match next Sunday.”
One of Wright’s main hopes for Saturday will be that no more injuries are picked up.
He explained: “The injuries haven’t cleared up as quickly as we’ve liked.
“Ando is going in for his operation, while David Wotherspoon and Frazer Wright will hopefully start training in the next few days.
“Simon Lappin has had his injection so we’ll see how he is.
“Murray Davidson is making really good progress so we’re happy with him, but he’ll obviously miss the Hearts game.
“So will Dave Mackay because of his long-term injury.
“The three longer term ones are definitely out, but we’ll see how Frazer, Simon and David are.”
Meanwhile, Wright will sound Coventry boss Tony Mowbray out about Danny Swanson before next weekend.
He said: “I will probably have a conversation with Tony Mowbray next week to see what the situation is with Danny.
“We just left it that he was going back there for pre-season.
“We’ve brought Liam (Craig) in since so there would be factors involved in trying to get someone else in.
“It might be a case of to get someone in we’d have to lose one, but at the moment we can’t afford to lose anyone.
“So I’ll have the conversation with Tony and see what the situation is.”