Best is yet to come
Scougall: Playing time will boost my form
St Johnstone midfielder Stefan Scougall hopes his form will continue to improve as he picks up more minutes on the pitch. The Perth summer signing (left) has looked sharp in the opening games of the season and is determined to raise the bar even further. But making a positive impression in this weekend’s top of the table clash at Celtic is top priority as Saints look to maintain their unbeaten start.
Scougall (24), who put pen to paper at McDiarmid Park after previously plying his trade with Sheffield United, said: “I came back up the road to get on the pitch and get minutes. Since I’ve come here, I think I’ve improved game by game. Hopefully I can keep going from strength to strength.
“Fingers crossed, I will continue to get better. I’ve not played much competitive football prior to the start of the season, so hopefully I can.
“We all work hard here from Monday to Friday and take it into the games on a Saturday. You have seen in previous weeks that we stick together and are all as one. I’m really enjoying it right now and it’s been very, very good.
“We can’t ask for much more from the start of the season with three wins from three. Now we have a good game to look forward to this weekend away at Parkhead.
“You saw against Kilmarnock that Celtic can rest a few and have players who can step in — and they don’t make them weaker. We know it’s going to be a tough afternoon down there.
“But it’s all about if we can start well, keep a clean sheet in the first 15 minutes and get ourselves into the game. I think that is what most teams try to do.
“We need to be alert for the full 90 minutes and, hopefully, we can come away with a good result.”
Scougall admits playing in arenas like Celtic Park is special and he added: “You’ve got big games against the likes of Celtic, Rangers, Hibernian, Hearts and Aberdeen.
“These are the games I came to play in and I’m wanting to make the most of it.
“It’s over 50 domestic games they are
unbeaten. If we can go there and get a point, you would take that. Fingers crossed we can get a positive result.”
Saints deservedly bagged the points against Partick Thistle on Saturday to set a new top-flight club record of winning their opening three games.
Scougall believes the performance was promising and said: “I felt we were more in control of the game against Partick compared to our previous games.
“I know we only won 1-0 but in terms of possession, I thought we were much better at keeping hold of the ball. I felt we deserved the win and were maybe a little bit unlucky not to be two up in the first half.
“We got beat 3-0 in the cup against them, so we worked on stuff leading up to the game to put the errors we made right. We did that and got the result.
“The European games were disappointing but we had a good solid pre-season after that. There is a lot of confidence and I think you can see that throughout the league games. We’ve done well so hopefully we can take it in to Saturday and get a nice result.”