St Johnstone sweep St Mirren aside Davidson hails new boy Clark

Nicky Clark, Drey Wright and Graham Carey were on target as St Johnstone bounced back from a run of three successive defeats to beat St Mirren 3-0 in an impressive performance at McDiarmid Park.

Clark opened the scoring as he showed composure to latch onto a Stevie May header and lift the ball over St Mirren goalkeeper Trevor Carson to mark his St Johnstone debut with a goal.

Wright’s strike midway through the second period was equally well-crafted, as he rounded off a fine move by meeting Adam Montgomery’s cutback with a first-time finish into the top corner.

The visitors hit the woodwork twice before Carey’s late penalty secured the victory for St Johnstone, who also kept their first clean sheet of the cinch Premiership season.

St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson had made two changes from last Sunday’s game against Hearts with Montgomery and debutant Clark coming in, while St Mirren were unchanged from their 1-0 win over Hibs last time out.

It was a cagey start to the match, with May volleying comfortably over for the hosts, while the away side’s only opening came through a dangerous inswinging cross from Ryan Strain that was deflected narrowly wide by home defender Andy Considine.

Then in the 26th minute, St Johnstone took the lead with the first moment of quality in the match.

Wright’s deep cross picked out May and his header at the back post found strike partner Clark, who showed brilliant composure to take a touch and prod the ball past Carson for a debut goal.

The away side had plenty of the ball as they looked to force a way back into the match but they struggled to create anything of note as the first half drew to a close.

The second period started in a similar fashion to the first, with both sides limited to shots from distance before the Perth side doubled their lead with another well-crafted goal.

May was involved again, slipping a delicious through ball to Montgomery, who took his time before picking out fellow wing-back Wright who side-footed into the top corner from eight yards out to make it 2-0.

The visitors almost got themselves back into the game in the 77th minute as first Scott Tanser hit the bar with a back-post header, before Jonah Ayunga’s follow up cannoned off the foot of the post in a remarkable passage of play.

St Mirren would be made to pay, though, as the hosts made the victory safe in the 86th minute.

It was another debutant involved as Connor McLennan jinked inside Marcus Fraser who brought him down to leave referee Colin Steven with no option but to point to the spot.

Carey stepped up and fired a sweet left-footed strike into the top corner to leave Carson with no chance and wrap up a comprehensive win.

Davidson: That’s why we signed Clark

St Johnstone manager Davidson hailed new signing Clark after the striker marked his debut with the opening goal.

Clark – who signed from Dundee United this week – showed composure to put the hosts in front from six yards. Davidson says debutant Clark’s opener was the key moment as his side recorded their biggest league win since February 2021.

He said: “It was a really tough game and that first goal was going to be crucial. St Mirren are hard to play against and very well organised.

“Nicky signed on Wednesday and he gets the goal to give us the vital lead in the game – that was so important and we then defended really well as a group and got the goals to kill it off.

“It is great for Nicky’s confidence. That is why we went after Nicky. We know what he can do. Hopefully he will enjoy his football and score goals. Then we’re all onto a win”.

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson, meanwhile, bemoaned his side’s finishing as they were unable to convert a number of openings to slump to defeat and end a run of three successive victories.

The Northern Irishman particularly rued the remarkable passage of play in which Tanser and Ayunga hit the woodwork with the score at 2-0 and quarter of an hour still remaining.

He said: “It’s frustrating because there’s no ranting or raving in the dressing room – we’ve lost 3-0 because they had two clear-cut chances and took them, we then had three or four clear-cut chances and took none.

“We should score the first opportunity, we should score the second opportunity, then we miss from three yards out as well.”

Robinson was also disappointed with the goals St Mirren conceded although he refused to be too critical of his side, who had kept three clean sheets in a row prior to this defeat.

He added: “We’ve been defensively very, very sound over the period but today we made two defensive errors that cost us. When you’re not taking your chances you’ve got to be defensively strong which we have been up until now.

“The result is very frustrating because there’s not much in the game – it looks like a hammering but it certainly wasn’t. It’s hard to criticise the players, they gave everything and we went right to the end.”

What’s next?

St Johnstone go to Kilmarnock next week, kick off Saturday 3pm – before hosting Ross County on the following weekend with kick-off at the same time. St Mirren make the trip to Edinburgh to play Hearts next weekend, before they host Celtic eight days later, live on Sky Sports.