St Johnstone manager Craig Levein hailed star strikers Adama Sidibeh and Benji Kimpioka as the two forwards fired the Perth side to their first Premiership victory in stunning style.
Saints beat Kilmarnock 3-0 at Rugby Park, with Sidibeh scoring two goals in the first half and Kimpioka boxing off the three points from the penalty spot late on.
The duo have now hit double figures between them already and Levein believes the best is yet to come.
“I think so,” he said. “I really do.
“Obviously we’ve got Nicky (Clark) to come back, Makenzie’s had a fairly good impact already. And then we’ve got Uche (Ikpeazu).
“So I’m looking forward to having them all available.
“Pace is hard to defend against, particularly if you’re at home and you want to be on the attack.
“Any time we managed to get the ball back, we got forward quite quickly and tried and take advantage of that.
“All credit to Adama for his goals.
“And then Benji keeps his scoring run going with the penalty.
“Adama’s getting better. He’s getting fitter. Benji’s getting fitter as well.
“Benji joined us in January. And he’s never been fit because he came right into the middle of our season.
“He’s had to fight to get himself in a position where he’s fit enough to play 90 minutes, particularly the way we ask him to play.”
Hard week for the club
It’s been a tough week off the pitch for Saints with the Cammy MacPherson social media furore.
Levein selected the midfielder to start the match.
“Yeah, I mean, there’s other stuff I’m not interested in,” he said. “I’m the football manager.
“I’m only concerned about trying to get points.
“So it’s been a good day for us.”
Levein did see plenty of room for improvement moving forward despite the result, the emphatic scoreline and the clean sheet.
“We didn’t defend as well as I would have liked, to be honest with you,” he said.
“Too many edgy moments where we weren’t picking up correctly or we wouldn’t go short with the strikers.
“Things that can be troublesome so we need to get better at that.
“Killie had a midweek match against European opposition, which brings a lot of emotional tiredness as well as physical tiredness.
“And we were hoping to take advantage of that, which we did manage to do today. Coming down here is never easy, so all credit to the boys.
“But I do feel that if we defend like that next week against Rangers (in the League Cup), we’re in trouble.”
Early goal
Saints got off to the perfect start by opening the scoring on the stroke of the fourth minute.
Drey Wright’s throw into the box was flicked on by Aaron Essel and Sidibeh caught Joe Wright flat-footed at the front post, held him off and guided a first-time shot past Robby McCrorie.
Cool heads were needed on a hot afternoon but that certainly didn’t apply to Joe Wright.
The Killie defender made two rash yellow yard tackles and was sent off for the second of them, just 17 minutes into the contest.
Saints were 2-0 not long after the half-hour mark.
The extremely impressive Andre Raymond left Robbie Deas on the ground when he darted down the left and sent in an accurate, low cross for Sidibeh.
The number nine killed the ball with his first touch and smashed it past McCrorie with his second.
He nearly completed a hat-trick before the half-time whistle.
But there was also a Fraser Murray shot that deflected off MacPherson on to the post in stoppage time.
Referee, Chris Graham, made a big call when he booked Danny Armstrong for diving as he raced ahead of Raymond and drove towards goal.
A VAR check revealed Armstrong had actually been fouled but outside the box – so the yellow card couldn’t be wiped out.
The second half had been mainly about game management for Saints but it was capped off with some classy football that ended up with the game being put to bed by Kimpioka from the penalty spot.
Wright and Graham Carey combined superbly, then Kimpioka’s quick feet drew a foul from Lewis Mayo.
That was game over and it capped a perfect afternoon in the Ayrshire sun.
St Johnstone – Rae, Raymond (Carey, 78), Cameron, Sanders, Neilson, MacPherson (Clark, 85), Wright, Essel, Sidibeh (Kirk, 85), M Smith (McPake, 90), Kimpioka. Subs not used – Sinclair, C Smith, Sprangler, Olufunwa, Franczak.
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