St Johnstone have been crying out for striker with pace like Benji Kimpioka, says Andy Considine

Andy Considine has found life tough against new St Johnstone team-mate, Benji Kimpioka, in training.

And now he’s hoping Premiership opponents are in for a dose of the same medicine.

The Swedish striker adds the pace to the Perth team that Considine believes has been an unticked box since he arrived at McDiarmid Park a season-and-a-half ago.

The raw ingredients are all there for the former Sunderland man to be a big hit in Scotland, with Kimpioka’s training ground work giving Considine a close-up experience of what’s to come when rough edges get smoothed out.

“Stevie May was probably our quickest striker before but Benji is on another level,” said the veteran centre-back.

“I knew from the first time coming up against him in training that he would be a nightmare.

“Defenders hate the sort of pace Benji has.

“It’s not just the speed over a distance, it’s the five or six-yard change of direction to get himself away from you.

“He was electric.

“That’s something we’ve been needing as a team.

“As a defender, you’d rather have a fight with someone than know that there’s 40 yards behind you and all he wants to do is run into that space.

“He’s maybe still a bit raw in terms of his decision-making when he gets in behind you but once he’s able to utilise that he’ll be a massive asset for us.

“He’s a great out-ball and if we’ve got a partner who can hold the ball up, he’ll be great at running the channels and we can build up from there.

“He’s looked sharp and I think he’ll be a great addition.

“Hopefully the goals will come soon.

“He’s at the right place to improve his football.”

Putting cup defeat behind them

Saints face Considine’s old club, Aberdeen, on Wednesday night.

And they need to show that their weekend horror show at Airdrie was a one-off in the Craig Levein era.

“Going into the game I thought we’d prepared well,” said Considine.

“We knew Airdrie would be tough opponents but for whatever reason we weren’t ourselves.

“We just couldn’t string three or four passes together, which isn’t like us.

“They gave us the opportunity to do it but we just didn’t execute well enough.

“There were far too many bad touches and bad passes.

“It was an opportunity of a cup run and it turned out to be a disappointing day for everyone involved.

“It’s always great to have a game coming so quickly after a performance like that.

“Hopefully we’ll have a couple of players back who weren’t involved at Airdrie.

“We need that strength in midfield – that defensive midfielder sitting in front of us.

“Tomorrow is going to be very difficult but it’s about us and we want to kake life difficult for them.

“Both teams are desperate for points. It’s a huge game.”