It’s a simple game really. Boot a roon’ ba’ that’s about 22cm in diameter into some contraption called a goal that’s eight feet high and eight yards wide. Of course, this simple game is a funny old game too. In 38 Scottish Premiership matches last season, St Johnstone scored 34 goals, the second lowest tally in the league and just four more than relegated St Mirren. The Perth side still managed to finish fourth in the table despite the kind of modest fire power you’d tend to get with a cheap water pistol.
Here in the new campaign, the sprightly Saints have unleashed the heavy artillery and have already rattled in 29 goals from just 14 league games. Funny old game? “It’s crazy that we have almost equalled our total for the whole of last season,” admitted Michael O’Halloran, who scored the equalising goal at McDiarmid Park on Saturday as Tommy Wright’s in-form side made it seven wins in eight games in all competitions with a 2-1 triumph over Kilmarnock. O’Halloran’s effort was also something of a milestone. It was St Johnstone’s 700th goal in Scotland’s top flight since the Premiership, in its various guises, came into being back in 1975. “It was a big toe-poke,” he said with a wry smile as he talked up the artistic merits of this historic hit. “It wasn’t the sweetest of strikes. I saw the Killie defender coming towards me, so I just decided to go for a big toey. It wasn’t a bad finish, considering.”
St Johnstone may not have been the most prolific poachers in the league last season but their success was built on organisation and a sturdy defensive resolve, an attribute that saw them concede 34 goals, the third lowest in the top tier. “We always pride ourselves on being organised,” noted O’Halloran. “We haven’t quite been as good defensively this season, but we are definitely on the right track in terms of striking the balance between scoring lots of goals and keeping clean sheets. We’ve been rattling the goals in so far this season and they are coming from all over the team, which is always a big help.”
Having started his professional career at Bolton Wanderers – he made only three first team appearances with the Lancashire club – O’Halloran is enjoying the opportunity to make a big impact in the Big County.
“We are in the semi-finals of the League Cup and also in the top four of the league so we have a lot to look forward to and I’m loving my football,” he gushed. “The manager has been great with me, he loves me as a player, so I can’t thank him enough for that and I really want to concentrate on doing well for him. There’s nothing better to have the faith from your manager and to be running out there at 3 o’clock every Saturday.”
After helping to put Rangers’ gas at peep as St Johnstone romped to a 3-1 victory at Ibrox in the third round of the Scottish League Cup in September, O’Halloran is not too concerned by who comes out of the hat when the draw for the semi-finals of the competition is made today.
“If you want to win it, then you need to beat the best teams and if that means we get Celtic in the semi-finals, then so be it,” he said. “They are the best team in the country just now but you have to beat those kind of teams to win trophies. So we are not really bothered who we get.”
Kilmarnock, who have been showing plenty of signs of improvement of late, got off to a flying start with a flying header from Steven Smith with barely two minutes on the clock but St Johnstone rallied. The experienced Steven MacLean was instrumental in both goals as he set up O’Halloran to equalise on 22 minutes before teeing up Chris Kane’s second half winner.
“Macca is one of the most unselfish players you’ll ever meet,” said O’Halloran. “He’s got that intelligence. He’s such a good team player.”
In this upwardly mobile St Johnstone team, everybody is pulling their weight.
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