Millar hopes artificial intelligence can help Saints at Rugby Park

Chris Millar hopes St Johnstone get the benefit of Scotland’s premier sporting facility when they travel to Kilmarnock this evening.

The Perth club have been training on the indoor pitch at Oriam, Scotland’s national performance centre for sport, based at Heriot-watt University in Edinburgh.

The facility is used by the Scottish Rugby Union and the Scottish Football Association as well as other sports organisations and teams.

Millar has enjoyed the sporting vibe at Oriam and looks forward to the Premiership clash at Rugby Park, which also has an artificial surface.

The 34-year-old midfielder said: “We have been there for a couple of days on the artificial turf to get used to the surface.

“It is a fantastic facility. It has everything you need, a massive pitch indoors, good changing facilities, a good gym – it is ideal. It is obviously all geared towards top performance in sports and using facilities like that can only help. It is something that most areas could benefit from.”

Millar is aware of the impact manager Steve Clarke has had at Kilmarnock. The sixthplaced Ayrshire side, seven points ahead of St Johnstone, have lost only once in their last 15 matches. “It is well- documented how well they are doing just now under Steve Clarke,” said Millar. “He has got them well organised, hard to beat and scoring goals as well so we know it is going to be a very difficult game. We haveagameinhandoverthem but these are games that we need to take maximum points from if we have aspirations of getting that top-six spot again and obviously we need to make sure that we are pulling away from the bottom as well.”

0 Chris Millar: Oriam training.