Remi Matthews will be worth the wait for St Johnstone, as Callum Davidson outlines plans for Ross Sinclair

By Eric Nicolson

July 28 2022, 6:00am

Remi Matthews.

Callum Davidson was linked with more goalkeepers this summer than St Johnstone have had play for them in a decade and more.

But the Perth boss believes his patience has paid off and Remi Matthews will be the ideal fit for the vacant number one spot at McDiarmid Park.

The Crystal Palace loan player “ticked all the boxes” for Davidson and coach Paul Mathers.

And he’s confident that the 28-year-old, likely to make his debut against Hibs in the Premiership opener this weekend, will be worth the wait.

Goalkeeper Remi Matthews saves all three of @officialdafc penalties as @acciesfc set up a Scottish Cup quarter-final visit to @Rangersfc pic.twitter.com/th6XJjNQXS

— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) February 15, 2017

“It was a long process to find a keeper,” said Davidson.

“We looked at a lot of good goalies so are delighted to get Remi in.

“He ticks all the boxes for us.

“Ideally we would have liked him in sooner but a lot of the time the bigger clubs don’t make decisions until later in the window.

“He’s played at a good level in England, he’s got experience of crowds and handling different situations.

“He’s also played in Scotland before so he knows what he’s coming into here.

“Remi is still young enough for a keeper so hopefully by playing week in, week out we will see improvements in him too.

“He’s a very good all-round goalkeeper. That’s what we have had here in the past.”

Davidson added: “He’s desperate to get going and to be the number one here.

“We have told him he’ll get his chance to play and it will be up to him to take it.

“We want him to be a leader, have high standards and to grab the opportunity he’s got.”

Ross Sinclair loan

Elliott Parish will now revert to his role as back-up, with Scotland under-21 international Ross Sinclair likely to be loaned out for regular game-time.

“Ross has done really well so we want him out on loan playing matches now,” said Davidson.

“We have had teams interested in him but because we were waiting on things to happen we had to ask them to wait as well.

“Now we have Remi in we’ll look again and see what’s out there for Ross because he’s at the stage where he needs to be playing games to kick on with his development.”