Cherries midfielder joins Saints on loan

ST JOHNSTONE: Defender Gordon impressed by new arrival against Celtic

St Johnstone have looked to the English Premier League for their latest signing, with midfielder Matt Butcher joining from Bournemouth.

The 22-year-old is on his way north to Mcdiar mid park to join tommy wright’ s men on a loan deal until the end of the season.

Butcher is familiar with loan moves, having enjoyed spells with Gosport Borough, Poole town, Woking and yeovil Town south of the border.

The move for Butcher follows hot on the heels of the arrival of Jamie Mccart.

The circumstances were far from ideal for Mccart’s Saints debut but fellow centre-back Liam Gordon believes his new team-mate passed the stiff est of tests with flying colours.

Having barely trained at Mcdiarmid after his arrival from Inverness Caledonian Thistle, the defender was thrown on at half-time against Celtic for a damage limitation exercise after the league leaders had built up a 3-0 lead.

No further goals were conceded in the game with Mccart on the pitch, though.

And Gordon was impressed with what he saw.

“Jamie came on and did well for the 45 minutes,” he said.

“He got a clean sheet and we need to put another run of them together. Hopefully Jamie can be a really positive signing for us and help to improve the squad. I played against him when he was younger at Celtic and he was always someone I thought was a good player.

“He has gone to Inverness and done well. He’s only been in for a couple of days’ training and we couldn’t do too much because of the snow but he went out on Wednesday night and was composed on the ball.

“His organisation was good as well, talking to myself and Jason Kerr.

“I thought the three of us worked really well together. Hopefully it’s something we can look forward to in the future.”

Gordon added: “Any competition is good for the squad and I want the best players here.

“If it’s someone in my position, I welcome the chase. I’ll fight every day for the jersey on a Saturday. Nobody likes to get comfortable so you want someone breathing down your neck.

“That only makes you a better player so Jamie arriving is great for me and for the squad. Everyone needs awake-up call at times. If that means bringing in new players, then that is great.

“If we weren’t able to bring anyone else in I still think we have a good enough squad to push on and get up the table.”

On his way out at Saints is Madis Vihmann. He joined from Estonian side FC Flora last summer but featured just five times for the Perth side.