St Mirren's Rise in the Premiership: A Quiet Threat

St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari believes St Mirren are quietly assembling one of the most dangerous stories of the new Premiership season – and doing it largely out of sight.

Craig McLeish’s side opened their league campaign with a sharp, controlled 2-0 win over last season’s surprise package Falkirk, a result that backed up an eye-catching League Cup group stage. Three wins from four, 12 goals scored, and safe passage to the next round as holders: St Mirren have not eased into the campaign, they’ve attacked it.

Valakari has been paying attention.

“I’ve been very impressed,” he said, reflecting on a club that spent last year fighting for their top-flight life. St Mirren survived only through the play-offs, a fraught end to a bruising season. That escape, though, has given McLeish time and justification to reshape them.

“They had a very difficult last season. They survived through the play-offs. They have been able to work on their game. I can see what they try to do.”

The tweaks are clear. New signings have added quality on the ball, but the core of what St Mirren have long represented has not been diluted.

“They brought in good footballers but they still have this, how would you call it, the old DNA of St Mirren, that they are very, very tough. They really want to bully you,” Valakari said, highlighting a side that still relishes the physical battle as much as the tactical one.

This is not a naïve cup team riding a short burst of form. It is a Premiership group hardened by experience and now operating with a freedom that comes from low external expectation.

“They have Premiership experience there, but the biggest thing is, no one expected anything from them and that's why they're going a little bit under the radar.”

St Mirren’s work has not gone unnoticed in Perth. Valakari admits he has studied them closely, not just in the opening league fixture but across the summer.

“I have been watching them all the time. I've seen what they're doing in the pre-season games, there's a clear identity what they want to do and good example was the first [league] game.”

That first league outing at Falkirk told its own story. The fixture carried the awkwardness managers dread: away from home, on a tricky surface, against opponents buoyed by last season’s exploits. St Mirren handled it with authority.

“They went to Falkirk, not an easy place to go, the surface, the stadium, no away matches in this league are easy.

“They went there and they played a very solid game. They were able to, in the right moments, hold the ball, in the right moments they were very vertical with dangerous running behind.”

Control when required. Direct, incisive movement when the chance appeared. It was the performance of a side that knows exactly what it wants to be.

Now they return home with momentum in hand. League points on the board, cup campaign rolling, belief quietly growing.

“They see this opportunity now as, 'we won the first match, now we play home’ so they are building up the momentum there,” Valakari said.

For St Johnstone, freshly returned to the Premiership after an immediate bounce-back from relegation, it sets up a stern early examination of their own credentials.

“That's why I said it's a tough challenge for us, but it's an exciting challenge for us.”

Under the radar or not, St Mirren are no longer just fighting to stay in the division. They are starting to look like a team intent on shaping it.