St Johnstone’s Premiership survival battle will be boosted by the attitude of the Perth club’s fringe players who have been starved of first team action of late.
Head coach, Simo Valakari, has revealed the two international break closed-doors contests gave him food for thought about his match-day selections during the league run-in.
Club captain, Nicky Clark, hasn’t started a match for Saints since January 12.
But his commitment to the Perth cause hasn’t dimmed – which he showed in Tuesday’s bounce game against Queen’s Park.
“I’ve been so happy with the players who stayed here,” said Valakari. “It’s not easy with no fixture for two weeks after you’ve not been playing so much.
“That’s why we had these two bounce games. They can keep their sharpness and show me.
“Nicky Clark scored a hat-trick against Queen’s Park. So, there’s a guy telling me: ‘I’m here and I’m ready, play me, I can help the team.’
“The boys have put a lot of thoughts in my head by how they’ve performed in those matches.
“Over the last two days when we watched the games, it has given me a big positive headache on what to do.
“You need to make that choice. I even have to leave players out of the squad who deserve to be in.
“But the balance, for certain matches, means they don’t make it.
“These fringe players are showing what good players they are, putting in the effort.
“Football is a small world. If you down tools, that news travels quickly. There are no problems with that here.”
No grey area
Valakari has been delighted to see one of his footballing fundamentals take root at McDiarmid Park.
“It can be a big problem when you have senior pros not in the team,” he explained.
“But, as I said from my first day, there is no grey area – you are with the team, or you are against the team.
“It can’t be that when you are not playing you don’t care. Those are not our players. That has been very clear.
“I have to say, the boys have been great. Senior players with many years of experience, they are telling me: ‘I should play, I should play.’
“I like this attitude. They knock on the door and tell me: ‘Gaffer, I am ready.’
“No one has downed tools. You don’t need to pretend you are happy. Of course, you are not happy when you’re not playing.
“But you need to act professionally and the best way to do that is give your all on the training ground.
“That helps the players next to you because they need to compete against the player who is giving their all.”
Stephen Duke-McKenna had the furthest to travel of the Saints players on international duty and didn’t train on Thursday.
Daniels Balodis and Makenzie Kirk were both involved as Saints prepare to face Hibs on Saturday.
Hibs challenge
The Edinburgh side are flying high these days and Valakari isn’t surprised that they have been transformed over the last few months.
“We played a bounce game against Hibs after I came here,” he recalled.
“After watching them in the first half I was wondering how on earth this team was at the bottom of the league.
“I saw their quality then.
“They’re maybe the strongest team you can face apart from Celtic and Rangers.
“I’ve watched them a lot.
“In this run it’s not as if they have been getting lucky breaks. They have deserved their results.
“Even when they aren’t playing well, they’re grinding out results. For me, that’s the sign of a good team.
“It will be a big challenge for us on Saturday.”
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