St Johnstone fans got their first sight of their 2025/26 squad at Forfar on Saturday, where Saints drew 1-1 with their League Two opponents.
Simo Valakari’s side had already played behind closed-doors against Hamilton on Tuesday afternoon but this was the start of pre-season proper.
The Finn, quite rightly, isn’t focused on results during the non-competitive fixtures.
It’s all about game by game progress and making sure they are ready to beat East Kilbride next weekend in their Premier Sports Cup opener.
Courier Sport picks out four Station Park talking points.
Captain Baird
There were plenty of stories within a story that captured why Saints were a relegated team last season.
The number of players who wore the captain’s armband was certainly one of them.
Kyle Cameron, Nicky Clark, Jason Holt, Graham Carey and Sven Sprangler all got a shot.
Unless there is some serious bad luck with injuries and suspensions, it should never be as high as five over a campaign.
There’s still a bit of recruitment work to be completed so we maybe shouldn’t read too much into Jack Baird leading the team out in Angus.
But the former Morton centre-back undoubtedly has the credentials for the role.
After a couple of Forfar players were left lying on the floor following aerial challenges with Baird, you started thinking: ‘If this is him in a pre-season friendly, what’s it going to be like when the real stuff starts’.
You can imagine St Johnstone hall of famer and current Forfar boss, Jim Weir, who was cut from the same cloth as a player, giving a nod of approval.
Baird organised, won most of his headers and kept his passing game simple.
It was a solid start. And the armband suited him.
The other new boys
It’s logical that the summer signings would be the players who looked furthest away from peak fitness.
Baird, Morgan Boyes, Jamie Gullan, Sam Stanton and Reghan Tumilty finished their 2024/25 seasons in the Championship and League One over two weeks before St Johnstone.
Matty Foulds was the same – and he hasn’t had a club to train with until he signed a few days ago.
Gullan, Stanton and Tumilty are the ones who will be doing the most running out of that group of five.
The forward looked very sharp at the start of the game, with his dart into the box earning the penalty he converted himself to open the scoring.
Tumilty will feel the benefit of nearly a full game.
That he had more of an attacking impact in the second half than the first (he won the second penalty of the match, which Adama Sidibeh failed to convert) bodes well.
Stanton was able to put his mark on the match in a creative sense but let’s not go overboard.
It was 45 minutes of football, playing into a gale, on a sticky artificial pitch.
Svedberg experiment
Arguably the most intriguing individual performance wasn’t from a new signing.
It was from one Valakari will hope can be put in the “like a new signing” category.
The timing of the Swede’s arrival (half-way through last season) and the injuries he subsequently picked up, prevented the manager, and the fans, from getting a grasp of where he will be most effective for Saints.
He was one of only two players to complete the full game at Forfar – and it was in a role higher up the pitch than we’d seen him before.
In a 4-3-3, Svedberg was on the right of the attacking trio.
“He played like a right winger inverting inside,” said Valakari.
“It took him a little while to get going.
“In the second half I think he was very good, started connecting and was very good in the box as well.”
It was a fair summing up.
Svedberg was one of several Saints players who had a chance of scoring from close range – a back post shot he failed to keep on target early in the contest.
And he also later forced a good save from Forfar’s trialist goalkeeper.
The 26-year-old showcased several moments of individual skill to bring team-mates into the game and, as Valakari observed, got to grips with his position better and better as the match progressed.
The head coach will want to recruit a more natural wide player for that slot, but he will feel more comfortable about putting Svedberg there having seen this game.
That’s the beauty of pre-season.
And, wherever his best position ends up being, there’s no doubt that getting the best version of Svedberg will be a key part of this St Johnstone team becoming title winners.
Falkirk next
Forfar have the core of a team that will ensure they don’t flirt as closely with dropping out of the SPFL this season as they did last.
But the tests are about to get harder for Saints.
Falkirk, who swapped divisions with them in May, visit McDiarmid Park on Tuesday evening.
“Progression” will continue to be the Valakari buzzword.
The most obvious aspects of that will be players topping up their fitness levels, getting more cohesive as small units within the team, making sure Forfar’s goal from a corner doesn’t become a habit this season as it was last, and sharpening-up in the opposition penalty box.
Of the new signings expected to be confirmed before that match, you would think loan goalkeeper, Toby Steward, is the likeliest to feature.
Valakari stated that he thought Tuesday would be “too early” for striker Louis Lloyd because of his lack of football and the same could be true for former Exeter City centre-back, Cheick Diabate.
So, with the addition of Josh McPake, it could be the same group as at Forfar who are tasked with making Saints look ready for the League Cup.
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