Saints to punch above weight once again in Premiership

St Johnstone have been belying their limited power in the transfer market since they reappeared back in the top flight in 2009, consolidating their position in the Ladbrokes Premiership and racking up third and fourth-place finishes in 2012/13 and last season respectively, with a final position of sixth sandwiched in between.

Manager Tommy Wright knows that his team will once again be up against it, but believes they will deliver. He told The Courier: “We know this season will be tough again but the challenge is for us to try to keep up with some of the other clubs. This team has been built on getting the best out of what we’ve got and this year we’ll have another go at it.”

Saints are regularly written off, but have been top-six regulars of late, being on the right side of the split in four successive campaigns, they are 1/4 to do that again this term.

The McDiarmid Park outfit have lost the likes of James McFadden and Lee Croft this summer, but the latter was always destined for a move back down south, while Scottish international McFadden mustered just one goal in his 16 league outings as he struggled to nail down a place in the starting XI.

Wright has added well in the off-season, pulling off a major coup in convincing Motherwell striker John Sutton to sign on a free transfer. The 31-year-old scored 12 league goals at the Well during a campaign in which they narrowly avoided relegation.

The former Tottenham youngster averaged pretty much a goal every other game in two years at Fir Park and almost guarantees double figures at his new club; incidentally he’s 16/1 to top the scoring charts.

A dire start last term saw Saints written off as relegation fodder as they lost seven of their opening 10 matches. Early victories could see Wright’s men involved in the top-six shake-up at a much earlier date.

St Johnstone are 12/1 in the ‘betting without Celtic’ market and if they can address last year’s problem in the autumn months then they should not be taken lightly.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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