Levein insists his team selection won’t be simple despite win

IF this was a two-game week rather than a threegame one, St Johnstone boss Craig Levein would have been given his easiest team selection since taking over at McDiarmid Park.

But, even though all the individual performances in the impressive victory over Aberdeen on Wednesday night justify a no-changes approach to today’s match against Livingston, the Saints manager has injury prevention to factor into his thinking.

“Nicky (Clark) has been a really difficult one,” said Levein.

“The fear of breaking down was extremely high after training a couple of times and it being sore and coming back again.

“He’s played there on Wednesday and that’s something I have to consider.

“I don’t have everything 100% clear in my head.

“If it had been SaturdaySaturday then you’d just say ‘same again’.

“He’s passed all these little tests we had in training, which we have some control over.

“The sessions can be whatever length I want them to be. But he’s doing more in the games than he’s going to do in training.”

Levein added: “David (Keltjens) has been out a long time as well.

“He’s had niggles. “We’ve tried to manage him to a degree.

“That’s another thing in my head.”

There may be selection dilemmas for Levein but there is no room for doubt when it comes to the demands he has placed on his players for a match that gives them an opportunity to open up a 14-point gap on their opponents.

“We did some of the video stuff and it was evident that a lot of the stuff that happened in the Aberdeen game was a direct result of our aggression, willingness to run harder and fight against Aberdeen,” he reflected.

St Johnstone boss Craig Levein.