28-02-2025
Saints ready to 'go again' in relegation showdown
Simo Valakari says there is no better occasion for his players to follow up their midweek win than in a Tayside derby against fellow Scottish Premiership strugglers Johnstone have won three of their last five top-flight games but remain three points adrift of Tony Docherty's side in 11th place.A win, coupled with a three-goal swing would see St Johnstone move off of bottom spot for the first time since mid-December as they fight to retain their Premiership status."You feel it, you feel a little bit, but you need to go again," Valakri told club media, external, on any fatigue his players may be feeling after playing two games already this week,"And no better place to go than this game now, a local derby, a big, big game for many, many, many reasons. And I think it will be a great atmosphere."The 51-year-old Finn's first game in charge of the Perth Saints was a dramatic late win at Dens Park, but at the start of 2025, they were thrashed 3-1 by their Tayside rivals."It was one of the biggest things in my coaching career to feel that," he added on his first game in charge."But at the same time, I felt it maybe most low as well in this one game we played them here in our own stadium, in front of our own fans, 3-0 after 15 minutes."So high and low. I felt both. And now again, it's a new occasion, a new game."They want to attack us, they want to put us under pressure, they want to hit us in counter-attacks and score early goals and you know, make it very difficult for us. So we need to prepare ourselves mentally and physically."We need to be, first of all, ready for this occasion, we know it will be a high-intensive game, with a lot of duels, with a lot of second balls you need to win it."
