Simo Valakari is relishing a “beautiful game” when his St Johnstone side host Hearts on Saturday.
The Perth side are looking to bounce back from a midweek defeat at St Mirren, while Hearts are bottom of the table after a home defeat by Kilmarnock.
Valakari, who took over at the beginning of last month albeit paperwork issues kept him in the stands for two games, is excited to be in the Perth dugout for the first time.
“I see it as a big opportunity for us to play a beautiful game in front of our own fans in our home stadium,” he said.
“At the same time we are playing against a very good footballing team, for whatever reason they are there [at the bottom of the table], but they have the quality there.
“We have been concentrating on our thing. They will come here and see this game as [an opportunity] to kickstart their season.
“That’s normal, but we need to be ready and it’s always about us, we look at this as opportunity to play here, in front of our own fans and be positive, be brave and do all the little details as well as possible against a quality team. If you sleep even for one moment, they will punish you.
“I have already seen our fans, I felt them and they are great. Our job as a team is to give them joy, give them emotions, give them enjoyment, to watch their own team to play at their home stadium that’s what we are ready to do.”
