St Johnstone midfielder Jacob Butterfield calls for clear minds and fast start in Premiership play-off first leg

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Jacob Butterfield has called for clear minds and a fast start this Friday night.St Johnstone, whose status in the top-flight is hanging by a thread, travel north to Inverness for the first leg of the Scottish Premiership play-off.Saints finished the league campaign in 11th position and now need to scrap for survival against the Highlanders.“A lot can happen over two legs but we’ll be looking to put our stamp on the play-off right from the off and win the first leg,” Butterfield said.“Physically, mentally we need to stand up to the task and play our football.

I’ve been involved in play-off games before. You just have to treat them like any other game.“It’s about winning – simple as that.

You need to simplify your thoughts. If you over-think and put too much pressure on yourself you don’t perform to your best. You have to have a clear mind.“As a group we’ll work on everything we have to do to get ourselves in the right frame of mind and to be ready.“We’ve got a very experienced group, with thousands of games between us.“If we perform to the level we’re capable of I’m confident we’ll get the job done.”Butterfield sat down to watch Billy Dodds’ side prevail against Arbroath on penalties in the play-off semi-final – despite finishing with nine men.“It was hard to gauge it but we’ll certainly give them total respect because they’ve been at the top end of their league all year,” Butterfield said on Sunday.“And they’ve come through two rounds of play-off games.“Any team that can win with nine men has to be respected.

They’ve got momentum. We’ll need to do the right things and be at our best.”Butterfield played 76 minutes of Saints’ 4-0 defeat against Hibs at Easter Road on Sunday.It was the final game of the league campaign and