\n<\/p>\n
St Johnstone ensured an immediate return to the Scottish Premiership, wrapping up the Championship title with two games to spare after a 2-0 win away to Dunfermline Athletic.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Perth side led from the opening weekend of the season when they beat closest rivals Partick Thistle 5-1.<\/p>\n
“We set the standard from day one and we stayed there,” a delighted captain Jason Holt told BBC Scotland.<\/p>\n
“Fair play to other teams putting pressure on us, but we knew we were the best team in the league.<\/p>\n
“To bounce back at the first time of asking, I’m so proud of the boys.”<\/p>\n
The victory at East End Park was St Johnstone’s 20th from 34 league outings, with just three defeats along the way.<\/p>\n
The decision to stick with head coach Simo Valakari after relegation was vindicated, with the 3,000 away fans in Fife chanting the Finn’s name.<\/p>\n
And an emotional Valakari was full of praise for his players, saying: “It was our first chance to win this league and they showed no mercy, that tells me a lot about this team.<\/p>\n
“We played our style. It didn’t matter where we were. We went to difficult places and we played out football. That’s what has made us champions.<\/p>\n
“There were some key moments. We lost at Partick Thistle in November but we stuck with our principles and our values and that day I knew we would win the league.”<\/p>\n
Experienced Holt made sure the plaudits were shared with the boss, saying of Valakari: “What you see is what you get. So much enthusiasm, so much positivity. <\/p>\n
“As players, we go on the pitch feeling free. If you make mistakes, fine, don’t worry about it. That’s given us the platform to go and be successful. He’s been different class.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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St Johnstone ensured an immediate return to the Scottish Premiership, wrapping up the Championship title with two games to spare after a 2-0 win away to Dunfermline Athletic. The Perth side led from the opening weekend of the season when they beat closest rivals Partick Thistle 5-1. “We set the standard from day one and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}