Simo Valakari Praises St Mirren's Quiet Strength
St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari believes St Mirren are quietly building something dangerous – and that too many people are missing it.
Craig McLeish’s side opened their Premiership campaign with a statement win, a 2-0 victory over last season’s surprise package Falkirk, and they arrive in the new season already armed with momentum. Three wins from four in the League Cup groups, 12 goals scored and safe passage into the next round as holders. No noise, no fuss. Just results.
Valakari has been watching. Closely.
“I’ve been very impressed,” he admitted, and there was no sense of this being the usual pre-match flattery.
His St Johnstone team are back in the top flight at the first attempt after relegation, and he knows exactly what survival looks like – and what a dangerous opponent looks like too.
From his vantage point, St Mirren’s resurgence has its roots in last season’s struggle. They stayed up only through the play-offs, scarred but still standing. That brush with the drop has hardened them.
“How I see the situation, 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 rebuild has been subtle rather than spectacular. McLeish has added what Valakari calls “good footballers”, but the core of St Mirren’s identity has not shifted. The edge remains.
They are still awkward. Still combative. Still intent on bullying opponents when the game turns into a fight.
“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.”
That combination – better footballers layered on top of a hard, uncompromising streak – is what intrigues Valakari most. It is also what makes Saturday’s test such an early gauge of where St Johnstone stand.
St Mirren’s performance at Falkirk underlined the point. This was not a smash-and-grab or a backs-to-the-wall raid. It was controlled, deliberate, and ruthless in the key moments.
“They went to Falkirk, not an easy place to go, the surface, the stadium, no away matches in this league are easy,” Valakari said. “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.”
That blend of patience and penetration is new. The grit is familiar; the clarity with the ball is not. It speaks to a team that used last season’s fear as fuel.
Yet, for all that, Valakari senses a strange quiet around them.
“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.”
He doesn’t share that complacency. While others glance at the table or focus on bigger budgets and louder stories, he has been tracking St Mirren’s pre-season, their patterns, their intent.
“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 identity now meets expectation. St Mirren have banked an opening-day win away from home. They return to their own ground with confidence and a chance to turn a promising start into something more substantial.
“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 promoted and still feeling their way back into Premiership life, it is exactly the sort of fixture that can define a month. For St Mirren, it is another chance to prove that “under the radar” will not apply for much longer.
