Kai Watson: St. Johnstone Surprise Everyone
When it was announced that all the Scottish Premiership matches were going to be live on Sky Sports, the only ones looking forward to the 2pm kick-off on Sunday were St. Johnstone and Kilmarnock fans.
However, they served up the game of the weekend, by a distance, in what ended up being a 4-3 home victory.
Simo Valakari will be frustrated by conceding three because they were well on top for most of the game and apart from 5-10 minute spells after scoring, Kilmarnock didn’t offer much going forward. The rotations between Fowler, Gullan and Paton were a joy to watch at times as they played some really fluid football.
Kilmarnock couldn’t keep up with their movement and interplay for most of the game and it only took 16 minutes for them to open the scoring. Paton drove with the ball before playing in Gullan on the overlap who crossed for Fowler who controlled it wonderfully on his left foot and left Stryjek with no chance.
The Killie goalkeeper then made a smart save to deny Paton before they equalised against the run of play in the 37th minute and it was 1-1 at half-time. At the beginning of the second-half, Gullan turned provider again with a wonderfully whipped in corner that Diabate met powerfully at the far post.
Toby Steward won’t want to see the Kilmarnock equaliser again any time soon after he was caught in no man’s land when Hugill beat him to the ball at the near post. Then came Killie’s best spell of the game as they put a bit of pressure on and took the lead when Schjonning-Larsen’s shot was saved but the ball deflected off of Jason Holt’s face into the back of the net.
He won’t get another assist for it but St. Johnstone’s equaliser but credit has to go to Gullan for another brilliant set-piece delivery which it looked like was turned in by substitute Louis Lloyd but ended up being deflected into his own net by Schjonning-Larsen.
The winning goal was a moment of real quality from Simo Valakari’s side as Kai Fotheringham played Josh Fowler down the line then continued his run into the box, Fowler found him, he took one touch to control, one to get it out his feet then fired it into the corner leaving Stryjek stranded.
St. Johnstone led twice but it ended up being an excellent comeback in a display where they showed some real attacking intent at times and controlled the game for the majority of it. They kept more possession (56%), had more shots (15 vs 7), higher xG (1.76 vs 0.79) and had more touches in the opposition box (28 vs 16).
In a game that many, myself included, expected a Kilmarnock win, St. Johnstone impressed and looked comfortable for a lot of the game. If they can keep scoring and creating the way they did on Sunday, then they should have no trouble staying in the Premiership this season, assuming they can also iron out some of those defensive errors.
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