St Johnstone

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Craig Levein's appointment as St Johnstone manager last November surprised many in the game.

And, similarly, his sudden exit on Tuesday afternoon will have caught plnenty out.

So much has happened at McDiarmid Park in the last 10 months and as is often the case when new owners come in, they want to have the final say in most things.

American businessman Adam Webb has only been in the door a matter of months and Levein has gone already.

With just 11 wins in his 39 games in charge, Saints hardly set the heather on fire during Levein's spell, but there had been glimmers of hope.

The signings of Adama Sidibeh and Benjamin Kimpioka were indications that an upturn in fortunes may not have been too far away.

The dismissal of Levein, though, may go a bit deeper than just a lack of wins. Having spoken to Webb at the start of the season, he is someone who has his own ideas on how things should be.

It would be no surprise if those ideas differed to those of the manager, and we all know which boss comes out on top in those circumstances.

It may well be just a clash of personalities led to the inevitable split, but Levein's appointment never had the full backing of the support.

Perhaps St Johnstone fans should be careful what they wish for. This could be a long old season for the club.

Could Tommy Wright, who led St Johnstone to 2014 Scottish Cup glory during his seven-year spell in charge, be set for a return to replace the sacked Craig Levein?

One fan in favour is Sam Miller, of the Dogger Saints Podcast, who explains why Wright would be a good choice.

Listen and subscribe to the Scottish Football Podcast on BBC Sounds

Former Celtic captain Scott Brown, who is now managing Ayr United, and Hoops assistant coach John Kennedy are among the contenders for the St Johnstone job. (Scottish Sun)

Tommy Wright would be a popular choice among fans for a St Johnstone return - and ex-Saints midfielder Nick Dasovic could also be on the club's list to replace Craig Levein. (The Courier)

Read the rest of Wednesday's gossip.

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Former St Johnstone defender Allan Preston feels there was an inevitability about Craig Levein's sacking, but is surprised it has happened so early in the season.

The Perth club's new owner, American lawyer Adam Webb, has made Levein the first Premiership managerial casualty of the campaign after four defeats in the opening five league matches.

"I'm disappointed for Craig. He kept them up and did a reasonable job last season," Preston told BBC Scotland's The Nine.

"This season was always going to be difficult. The new owner has come in and has his own ideas. An inevitable parting of the ways was going to come eventually. I didn't quite see it as quickly as this.

"If that was the case [Webb wanted his own man in], why didn't they do it in the window? They could have given a new manager time to assess the squad and bring in his own players. A new manager now is going to have to inherit Craig's players, good, bad or indifferent, and get on with that."

Preston expects Webb to tap into the knowledge of the existing staff at the club in his search for a new manager.

"I think he's going to lean heavily on the likes of Roddy Grant and Gus MacPherson because they know the club and Scottish football well," he added.

"While Adam Webb has a stake in Cambridge in England, he doesn't know the Scottish game as much. A foreign coach may be a route he goes down, but we’ve got some good managers here in Scotland.

"Scott Brown is doing a great job at Ayr and would be high up [the list] I’d imagine. Peter Leven has been quoted at Raith Rovers, where Ian Murray has just lost his job.

"And the name that always comes up is cup-winning manager Tommy Wright. I’m sure a lot of St Johnstone fans would welcome Tommy back.

"There will be a lot of good candidates and it's a wonderful club. Yes, they’ve got new owners and no longer the best chairman in Scottish football history, Geoff Brown, but Adam Webb will make his own stance and hopefully they can get out of the mess they're in."

Craig Levein speaks to BBC Scotland after what proved to be his final game in charge of St Johnstone, a 2-0 loss to Hibs at Easter Road.

St Johnstone are beaten 2-0 at Hibs for a fourth consecutive defeat, leading to the dismissal of manager Craig Levein.

Nine games into the season and Craig Levein has been sacked by St Johnstone.

After five Scottish Premiership matches, Saints sit 10th with one win and four defeats, the latest a 2-0 loss to Hibernian at the weekend.

Do you think it's the right move to dismiss Levein at this stage? And who would you like to see come in at McDiarmid Park?

Give us your thoughts here., external

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St Johnstone have "parted company" with manager Craig Levein.

The Perth club, who have lost four of their opening five league games this season, confirmed the 59-year-old's dismissal in a short statement.

It said: "The board of directors can announce that St Johnstone Football Club has today parted company with manager Craig Levein.

"The football club would like to place on record its thanks to Craig for all of his efforts during his time at McDiarmid Park.

"Andy Kirk and Alex Cleland will take charge of the team ahead of Saturday's game against Ross County.

"A further update will follow in due course."

Sam Miller
Fan writer

I'm glad I'm not the new owner or a board member at McDiarmid Park because some serious decisions are close to being made.

A trip to Leith to take on Hibs yielded zero positives. It did, however, confirm what we already know.

We are short in many positions, have a terrible discipline issue, no squad depth and a manager who has very quickly fallen out of favour with the faithful.

A trip up to Dingwall on Saturday is now absolutely massive due to us playing Celtic and Rangers afterwards. We need anything from the Ross County match.

Will Levein be at the helm by October? I don't like anyone losing their job and I'm glad it's not my decision to make.

Sam Miller can be found at the Dogger Saints podcast, external

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Gordon Marshall has been appointed St Johnstone goalkeeping coach, filling the role vacated by Craig Hinchcliffe in the summer.

Marshall, 60, was most recently working with Hamilton and has also had coaching spells at clubs including Hibs, Motherwell and Aberdeen.

He also previously worked as a coach at St Johnstone when current Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes was manager at the Perth club.

Marshall replaces Hinchliffe, who left in the summer to become Aberdeen's goalkeeping coach.

Marshall, who started work with Saints on Monday, said: "I'm delighted to be back at McDiarmid Park and I'd like to thank everyone for the warm welcome.

"I'm looking forward to getting to work with a group of young, talented goalkeepers."

Craig Levein thinks he has better players at St Johnstone this season and that win at Kilmarnock earlier this season proved they can win big games.

But they need to do it on a more regular basis.

It doesn't help that one of their top players, Adama Sidibeh, is serving a four-game ban, but they still need to get a winning mentality and confidence back in the dressing room. The more they lose, it will eat away.

They need to get a result soon to get back on track. But I think they are still in better shape than last season, I agree with Levein on that.

In Sidibeh and Benjamin Kimpioka, they have two strikers who will test teams if they can get more possession and get it to the attack.

Former St Johnstone striker Billy Dodds was talking to BBC Scotland's Nick McPheat.

We asked for your views on St Johnstone's 2-0 defeat against Hibs.

Here's what some of you said:

Rick: Yet another performance where we are the better team for the first half but can't threaten their goal, then we concede another shocker. Defensively we are a shambles and that is meant to be Craig Levein's strength - he needs to go now ahead of a crucial month where we play Ross County twice, once without our two main strikers.

Gordon: Nothing has changed, game after game after game. The manager's failure to use subs until it was 2-0 is in keeping with his style. Another game, another red card as well. Two goalkeepers on the bench? Adam Webb needs to act NOW. Levein simply has to go. His players, his ownership.

Jason: Levein must walk or be sacked, his record is horrendous and he has lost the support and the players with the third game ending with 10 men, tactics or lack of and poor subs – time is up, please go now.

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• St Johnstone have lost their last three games in the Premiership - closing in on the four-game losing streak total they suffered towards the end of last season.

• Warren O'Hora attempted 58 passes in this game - the most by a Hibs player in the Premiership this season.

• St Johnstone attempted five shots in this game, their lowest total in a single match in the Premiership this season.

Hibernian grabbed their first Scottish Premiership win of the season at the fifth attempt by defeating St Johnstone at Easter Road.

Mykola Kuharevich's close-range goal capped a tepid first half, Hibs finding the crucial breakthrough in stoppage time.

The Ukranian striker got a faint touch to Marvin Ekpiteta's header across goal after Nicky Cadden's deep free kick caught St Johnstone flat-footed.

It laid the platform for a more encouraging second half for Hibs and they got a further reward when Chris Cadden slipped in Martin Boyle, who sent a beautiful dink beyond goalkeeper Ross Sinclair to seal a crucial win.

Craig Levein's side did not threaten the Hibs goal enough when they were on top, with speculative efforts from Matt Smith and Nicky Clark as close as they came.

And when they switched off at a set piece it sparked a decline which ended in a fourth straight Premiership defeat, which was made worse when Benjamin Kimpioka was sent off in the 90th minute for a lunge on Jordan Obita.

Were you at Easter Road or following the match from home? Either way, we want your views on the game.

Hibs fans – have your say here, external. St Johnstone fans, share your views here.

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St Johnstone manager Craig Levein: "I thought we were relatively good in the first half and it was a really body blow to go in behind after a good first half away from home in the Premiership.

"I was very frustrated with the goal right on half-time and it was a very simple goal that we should be able to deal with. We've messed up a couple of those recently so we need to go back on the training ground to do it again.

"The second-half performance wasn't good enough and we need to do better. We made so many poor decisions with our passes second half.

"It's difficult to come back if you're making mistakes and not playing how you need to. We needed to get the ball forward quicker and get the ball down the sides of Hibs to get them turned and put pressure on them."

On the red card: "It's a really poor decision from Benji (Kimpioka). He was frustrated he felt he had fouls he didn't get.

"I was caught between taking him off, but he can also get you a call particularly when we don't have Adama Sidibeh and Uche Ikpeazu available.

"I was reticent to take him off but maybe I should've done as his frustration boiled over. It was silly, he apologised to the lads after the game but it doesn't help us for next week."

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Thomas Duncan, BBC Sport Scotland

There is plenty of evidence St Johnstone are playing more with the ball this season than in recent campaigns, but regardless of a more slick approach they have now lost four games in a row.

Their first-half spell was tidy but lacked punch with pacy striker Adama Sidibe a big miss amid his four-match ban.

Craig Levein's side mustered just one shot on target - Nicky Clark's shot from distance in the first couple of minutes - and registered a pitiful expected goals rating of just 0.16.

After conceding from a set piece, as they did twice against Motherwell last week, they slipped out of the match all too easily.

Benjamin Kimpioka's sending off will only compound their issues in attack as he will now also be banned, and discipline is clearly an issue as it is the third game in a row they have been reduced to 10 men in the closing stages of matches.

Levein and first-team coach Andy Kirk have much to consider as a bright start to the campaign threatens to unravel due to persistent problems.

St Johnstone's Craig Levein is without centre-back Jack Sanders due to suspension, so it could be that Aaron Essel drops back into defence at Easter Road.

Cammy MacPherson makes way as fellow midfielders Sven Sprangler and Jason Holt come into the XI.

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Hibs forward Kieron Bowie is facing a minimum of four months out with a hamstring injury he suffered while playing for Scotland Under-21s, but new striker Dwight Gayle could be involved and Elie Youan and Junior Hoilett are back in contention.

Lewis Miller is expected to be fit after a minor knee issue, but Jake Doyle-Hayes is still working his way back to full fitness.

St Johnstone pair Adama Sidibeh and Jack Sanders are suspended. Fran Franczak has picked up an ankle injury and is set to miss out, while Uche Ikpeazu (knee) and Sam McClelland (Achilles) are still absent.

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Craig Levein is prioritising the signing of a centre-back as he looks to bolster the St Johnstone squad with free agents.

Sam McClelland is out with a long-term Achilles injury and fellow central defender Jack Sanders is suspended for Saturday's game at Hibs.

Charles Dunne, who Stephen Robinson has confirmed is training with St Mirren after leaving the Paisley club this summer, has been mooted for a move to Perth.

"He's one of a number of centre-backs who is still on the market," Saints boss Levein said.

"We're looking at a number of different things at the moment. With Sam McClelland being out for most of the season it's a little bit of a blow for us.

"I feel that we're quite low and quite bare in that position so we still need to strengthen there.

"Sam's just doing his recovery at the moment and the operation went well. It's a matter of it being a long slog. Hopefully he comes back stronger."

Levein says it was time to give Ross Sinclair a "reward" for his improvement in training following elbow surgery by restoring him to the first team at the expense of Jose Rae for the defeat by Motherwell before the international break.

"Josh has had the jersey from probably halfway through pre-season," Levein added.

"He's made a few errors and I just felt that Ross had been training well. I just thought we needed a change.

"Ross has been out for an awfully long time with his elbow injury and he's gradually been improving during training and it was time to give him a reward for that improvement."

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Craig Levein has been speaking to the media before St Johnstone face Hibs in the Premiership this weekend.

Here are the key lines from the St Johnstone boss:

• Although the transfer window has closed, he would like to bring in another one or two players who are free agents.

• On being linked with defender Charles Dunne, who is back training with former club St Mirren, Levein says: "He's one of a number of centre-backs who is still on the market, we're looking at a number of different things."

• The Saints boss is looking forward to domestic football resuming because he didn't "like going into the international break on the back of a defeat".

• On goalkeeper Josh Rae being dropped for Ross Sinclair in the loss to Motherwell last time out, Levein says Rae has "made a few errors" and "we needed a change".

• Levein is braced for a tough test at Easter Road and says "it's a challenge when you're playing teams who have a lot more resources".

• He adds: "The lads are in good form, some of the results haven't reflected our performances and I'm hoping we can get back to getting the just rewards for our good play."

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St Johnstone defender Oludare Olufunwa and midfielder Connor Smith have joined Hamilton on loan.

Olufunwa, 23, joined Saints from Liverpool a year ago and made 11 appearances last season, but has not featured this term.

He moves to Accies until January, while Smith will spend the rest of the season with the Championship club.

The 24-year-old left Hearts to sign for Craig Levein's side in January and has featured 13 times, including two League Cup outings this term.