It’s a day I will not

signed from English Premier League side Coventry in 1995.

“My wife was a bit sceptical about coming up to Scotland.

“But Geoff picked us up from the airport, took us around Perth and settled us down.

“I was always very impressed with the chairman and the club’s attitude. I remember going to games and we’d share the coach with the directors. It was like a big family together.

“On the way home we’d play cards and then maybe have a beer together. Nobody thought they were this or that. They deserved to be in the Premier League.”

Jenkinson had gone reasonably close to promotion in his first season as a Saint. The Perth club finished six points back of Dunfermline.

He arrived at McDiarmid Park as a man expected to bring pace and lots of it. After all, as a youngster at Hull City he had featured in the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge – which brought together the fastest professional footballers in England for a prize pot of £10,000.

“I won the north-east heat,” Jenkinson reminisced. “I was very quick and very direct. That was how I played my game.

“And when Luggy bought me, he realised that. He used to compensate on the other side with the other winger tucking in a bit more because I wasn’t the best at getting back.”

For a man with such speed, moving from the English Premier League with Coventry to the First Division in Scotland was perhaps going to bring a bit of rough treatment his way. But he had already been through the hard school of knocks.

Jenkinson said: “My upbringing was with Hull City as an apprentice for six years. I was in the first team when I was 17.

“This was in the old second tier, which would be like the Championship now. Those were the days when you were a young, quick – people think you’re cocky – winger who always wanted to take people on.

“You would get scythed down. I remember the first time I played against Leeds United and Mel Sterland gave me an absolute kicking and more or less said that I needed to pipe down a little.

“Where I’m from in England playing in the parks, I got my fair share of kicking. It was nothing new to me.

“I moved to play with Coventry. Eventually I wasn’t playing with Ron Atkinson and he just didn’t fancy me.

“I wanted to get away and needed it. St Johnstone was the best decision I made - I absolutely loved the place. Absolutely loved it.

“Once I got to know the lads and started playing, I fitted in great. We had a small squad but it seemed to pick itself every week.

“We were lucky that we didn’t have many injuries. The lads played together a lot and there wasn’t much chopping and changing. We were pretty successful too.

“The aim was to get into the Premier League and that first season we just missed out.

“The second year we deservedly went up.

“Even when Luggy lost a couple of players, I thought he bought really well. Kevin McGowne was a good centre-half and we lost him to Kilmarnock.