2016–17 St Johnstone F.C. season

The 2016–17 season was the club's fourth season in the Scottish Premiership and their eighth consecutive season in the top flight of Scottish football. St Johnstone also competed in the Scottish Cup and the League Cup.^[2]

St Johnstone

2016–17 season
Chairman	Steve Brown
Manager	Tommy Wright
Stadium	McDiarmid Park Perth, Scotland (Capacity: 10,696)
Scottish Premiership	4th
Scottish Cup	Fifth round lost to Partick Thistle
Scottish League Cup	Quarter final lost to Aberdeen
Top goalscorer	League: Danny Swanson (10) All: Danny Swanson (15)
Highest home attendance	7,979 vs Rangers Scottish Premiership 28 December 2016
Lowest home attendance	2,549 vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle Scottish Premiership 3 December 2016
Average home league attendance	4,368[1]
Home colours Away colours
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Season summary

Tommy Wright was kept as manager and remained for the season. The Saints again finished in Fourth place but qualified for European Football.^[3] Danny Swanson was the club's Top League and Season scorer, but a few weeks before the end of the season, he signed for a pre-contract agreement with Hibernian.^[4]

Results and fixtures

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Pre-season

Glentoran v St Johnstone

9 July 2016	Glentoran	1 – 2	St Johnstone	The Oval
	Chris Lavery	Report	MacLean Kane

Livingston v St Johnstone

12 July 2016	Livingston	1 – 1	St Johnstone	Tony Macaroni Arena
	Josh Mullin 56'	Report	Coulson 10'	Referee: Beaton

St Johnstone v Bradford City

19 July 2016	St Johnstone	2 – 0	Bradford City	McDiarmid Park
	Cummins 33' McKay 37'	Report		Attendance: 1,177 Referee: Collum

Scottish Premiership

Main article: 2016–17 Scottish Premiership

St Johnstone v Aberdeen

7 August 2016 1	St Johnstone	0 – 0	Aberdeen	McDiarmid Park
12:15	Craig  34' Cummins  37'	BBC Report SPFL Report		Attendance: 5,728 Referee: Collum

Motherwell v St Johnstone

13 August 2016 2	Motherwell	1 – 2	St Johnstone	Fir Park
15:00	Cadden 47' Tait  39' Clay  74' McDonald  82'	BBC SPFL	Swanson 56' MacLean 75' Kane  42' Swanson  50' Davidson  90'	Attendance: 3,739 Referee: Euan Anderson

St Johnstone v Celtic

20 August 2016 3	St Johnstone	2 – 4	Celtic	McDiarmid Park
12:15	Swanson 83' (pen.) MacLean 89' Paton  45' Davidson  58' MacLean  86'	BBC SPFL	Griffiths 28' Sinclair 40' Forrest 44' Christie 90' Griffiths  38' Janko  43' Bitton  59'	Attendance: 6,823 Referee: Craig Thomson

Inverness Caledonian Thistle v St Johnstone

27 August 2016 4	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	2 – 1	St Johnstone	Caledonian Stadium
15:00	Draper 59' Meekings 90' Draper  66'	BBC SPFL	Foster 79' Wotherspoon  57'	Attendance: 2,729 Referee: Stephen Finnie

Partick Thistle v St Johnstone

10 September 2016 5	Partick Thistle	0 – 2	St Johnstone	Firhill Stadium
15:00		BBC SPFL	Anderson 21' MacLean 64' Swanson  70'	Attendance: 2,885 Referee: Nick Walsh

St Johnstone v Heart of Midlothian

17 September 2016 6	St Johnstone	1 – 0	Heart of Midlothian	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Cummins 57' Cummins  15' Foster  33' Davidson  49' MacLean  75' Kane  85' Craig  90'	BBC SPFL	Rossi  75'	Attendance: 5,456 Referee: John Beaton

Hamilton Academical v St Johnstone

25 September 2016 7	Hamilton Academical	1 – 1	St Johnstone	New Douglas Park
15:00	Docherty 37' Donati  58' Doherty  63' MacKinnon  70' Seaborne  78' Crawford  90'	BBC SPFL	Craig 82' Davidson  33'	Attendance: 1,705 Referee: Euan Anderson

Ross County v St Johnstone

1 October 2016 8	Ross County	0 – 2	St Johnstone	Victoria Park
15:00		BBC SPFL	Swanson 42' (pen.) Kane 73'	Attendance: 3,299 Referee: Crawford Allan

St Johnstone v Kilmarnock

15 October 2016 9	St Johnstone	0 – 1	Kilmarnock	McDiarmid Park
15:00		BBC SPFL	S Boyd 76'	Attendance: 2,930 Referee: Steven McLean

St Johnstone v Dundee

23 October 2016 10	St Johnstone	2 – 1	Dundee	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Anderson 62' Swanson 75' (pen.)	BBC SPFL	Loy 88' (pen.)	Attendance: 3,646 Referee: Andrew Dallas

Rangers v St Johnstone

26 October 2016 11	Rangers	1 – 1	St Johnstone	Ibrox Stadium
19:45	Garner 62'	BBC SPFL	Alston 5'	Attendance: 46,563 Referee: Kevin Clancy

St Johnstone v Partick Thistle

29 October 2016 12	St Johnstone	1 – 2	Partick Thistle	McDiarmid Park
15:00	MacLean 18'	BBC SPFL	Doolan 17' Osman 90'	Attendance: 3,096 Referee: Barry Cook

Heart of Midlothian v St Johnstone

5 November 2016 13	Heart of Midlothian	2 – 2	St Johnstone	Tynecastle Stadium
15:00	Buaben 25'  61' Igor Rossi  77' Paterson 87' Muirhead  89'	Report	Alston  7' Swanson 41' Kane 85' Easton  90+3'	Attendance: 16,421 Referee: Don Robertson

St Johnstone v Ross County

19 November 2016 14	St Johnstone	2 – 4	Ross County	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Anderson  4' Paton  55' Foster  62' Swanson 65' (pen.) MacLean 80'	Report	McEveley 24'  65' Routis 38' van der Weg  45+4' Curran 63' Boyce 83'	Attendance: 2,554 Referee: John Beaton

St Johnstone v Inverness Caledonian Thistle

3 December 2016 15	St Johnstone	3 – 0	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Craig 14' Coulson  57' Davidson 62' Wotherspoon  75' Swanson 81'	Report	Draper  45+1' Doumbouya  51' Warren  60'	Attendance: 2,549 Referee: Euan Anderson

Aberdeen v St Johnstone

10 December 2016 16	Aberdeen	0 – 0	St Johnstone	Pittodrie Stadium
15:00	McLean  87'	Report	Davidson  58' Kane  67' MacLean  68'	Attendance: 11,501 Referee: Kevin Clancy

St Johnstone v Motherwell

17 December 2016 17	St Johnstone	1 – 1	Motherwell	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Kane 62' Foster  90'	Report	Clark 12' (o.g.) Moult  77'	Attendance: 2,836 Referee: Willie Collum

Kilmarnock v St Johnstone

23 December 2016 18	Kilmarnock	0 – 1	St Johnstone	Rugby Park
19:45	Dicker  88' Hendrie  90+2'	Report	Davidson 43'  62' Wotherspoon  57'	Attendance: 3,056 Referee: Stephen Finnie

St Johnstone v Rangers

28 December 2016 19	St Johnstone	1 – 1	Rangers	McDiarmid Park
19:45	MacLean 28'  89' Paton  69' Foster  69'	Report	McKay 23' Holt  35' Hill  55' Halliday  67'	Attendance: 7,979 Referee: Crawford Allan

Dundee v St Johnstone

31 December 2016 20	Dundee	3 – 0	St Johnstone	Dens Park
14:00	Bakhtaoui 15' Kerr  23' Gadzhalov 42' Anderson 57' (o.g.)	Report	Paton  41' Swanson  90'	Attendance: 6,492 Referee: Don Robertson

Celtic v St Johnstone

25 January 2017 21	Celtic	1 – 0	St Johnstone	Celtic Park
19:45	Boyata 72' Gordon  81'	Report	Craig  17' Paton  76'	Attendance: 51,057 Referee: Andrew Dallas

St Johnstone v Hamilton Academical

28 January 2017 22	St Johnstone	3 – 0	Hamilton Academical	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Swanson  30' Cummins 53' 59' Davidson 74'	Report	Redmond  34'	Attendance: 3,279 Referee: Nick Walsh

Partick Thistle v St Johnstone

1 February 2017 23	Partick Thistle	0 – 1	St Johnstone	Firhill Stadium
19:45	Edwards  70' Elliott  90+2'	Report	MacLean 40' Swanson  60' Anderson  69'	Attendance: 2,257 Referee: Crawford Allan

St Johnstone v Celtic

5 February 2017 24	St Johnstone	2 – 5	Celtic	McDiarmid Park
12:30	Watson 31' Boyata 43' (o.g.) Paton  58' Foster  60' Craig  90+3'	Report	Henderson 6' Dembélé 61' (pen.) 75' 85' Sinclair 81' Lustig  90+3'	Attendance: 6,548 Referee: Craig Thomson

Ross County v St Johnstone

18 February 2017 25	Ross County	1 – 2	St Johnstone	Victoria Park
15:00	Curran 73' O'Brien  76'	Report	McEveley 31' (o.g.) Kane 90+1'	Attendance: 3,187 Referee: John Beaton

St Johnstone v Kilmarnock

25 February 2017 26	St Johnstone	0 – 2	Kilmarnock	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Kane  54' Anderson  81'	Report	McKenzie 11' Sammon 71'	Attendance: 2,933 Referee: Don Robertson

Rangers v St Johnstone

1 March 2017 27	Rangers	3 – 2	St Johnstone	Ibrox Stadium
19:45	McKay 22' Waghorn 48' Hyndman 90+1' Kiernan  78'	Report	Wotherspoon 74' Anderson 87'	Attendance: 46,800 Referee: Kevin Clancy

St Johnstone v Dundee

11 March 2017 28	St Johnstone	2 – 0	Dundee	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Paton 12' Alston 19' MacLean  89'	Report	O'Hara  26' El Bakhtaoui  69' Williams  84'	Attendance: 4,195 Referee: Andrew Dallas

Motherwell v St Johnstone

18 March 2017 29	Motherwell	1 – 2	St Johnstone	Fir Park
15:00	McDonald 44'	Report	Craig 8' 66' Davidson  78'	Attendance: 3,588 Referee: Greg Aitken

Hamilton Academical v St Johnstone

1 April 2017 30	Hamilton Academical	1 – 0	St Johnstone	New Douglas Park
15:00	Devlin  23' Crawford  45+3' D'Acol 89'	Report	Foster  45+3' Swanson  45+3' Cummins  83'	Attendance: 1,662 Referee: Don Robertson

St Johnstone v Heart of Midlothian

5 April 2017 31	St Johnstone	1 – 0	Heart of Midlothian	McDiarmid Park
19:45	Shaughnessy 73'	Report	Nicholson  83'	Attendance: 4,197 Referee: Nick Walsh

Inverness Caledonian Thistle v St Johnstone

8 April 2017 32	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0 – 3	St Johnstone	Tulloch Caledonian Stadium
15:00	Cole  81'	Report	MacLean 40' Alston  65' Craig 88' (pen.) Cummins 90+1'	Attendance: 2,961 Referee: Stephen Finnie

St Johnstone v Aberdeen

15 April 2017 33	St Johnstone	1 – 2	Aberdeen	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Craig  22' Swanson 48' (pen.) Wotherspoon  67' MacLean  84'	Report	Christie 19' Scobbie 32' (o.g.) Lewis  57'	Attendance: 5,132 Referee: Bobby Madden

Aberdeen v St Johnstone

29 April 2017 34	Aberdeen	1 – 2	St Johnstone	Pittodrie Stadium
15:00	Logan  18' Hayes  19' Stockley  90+3'	Report	Anderson  28' Shaughnessy  33' Swanson 80' Thomson 80' Craig  90+3'	Attendance: 10,606 Referee: Alan Muir

Celtic v St Johnstone

6 May 2017 35	Celtic	4 – 1	St Johnstone	Celtic Park
15:00	Roberts 47', 62' Boyata 52' McGregor 71'	Report	MacLean 49'	Attendance: 52,796 Referee: Nick Walsh

St Johnstone v Partick Thistle

13 May 2017 36	St Johnstone	1 – 0	Partick Thistle	McDiarmid Park
15:00	Swanson 33' (pen.) 83' MacLean  60' Craig  67'	Report	Devine  17' Edwards  24' Elliott  82'	Attendance: 3,630 Referee: Stephen Finnie

St Johnstone v Heart Of Midlothian

17 May 2017 37	St Johnstone	1 – 0	Heart Of Midlothian	McDiarmid Park
19:45	Kane 26'	Report		Attendance: 3,141 Referee: Don Robertson

St Johnstone v Rangers

21 May 2017 38	St Johnstone	1 – 2	Rangers	McDiarmid Park
12:30	Cummins 76'	Report	Miller 40' Toral 53'	Attendance: 6,799 Referee: Andrew Dallas

Scottish League Cup

Main article: 2016-17 Scottish League Cup

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PW	PL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		STJ	FAL	STI	BRE	ELG
1	St Johnstone (Q)	4	3	0	1	0	11	2	+9	10	Qualification to the Second Round		—	3–0	4–0	—	—
2	Falkirk (X)	4	2	0	0	2	5	4	+1	6	Possible Second Round as one of the 4 best runners up		—	—	—	2–0	3–0
3	Stirling Albion	4	2	0	0	2	6	7	−1	6			—	1–0	—	—	4–1
4	Brechin City	4	1	1	0	2	5	8	−3	5			1–1 (4–2 p)	—	2–1	—	—
5	Elgin City	4	1	0	0	3	6	12	−6	3			1–3	—	—	4–2	—

Updated to match(es) played on 30 July 2016. Source: BBC
(Q) Qualified; (X) Advances to Best runners-up

Elgin City v St Johnstone

16 July 2016 (2016-07-16) Group B	Elgin City	1 – 3	St Johnstone	Borough Briggs, Elgin
15:00	Duff 48' MacLeod  43'	BBC Report SPFL Report	Swanson 16' Cummins 71' MacLean 79'	Attendance: 1,046 Referee: Alan Muir

St Johnstone v Falkirk

23 July 2016 (2016-07-23) Group B	St Johnstone	3 – 0	Falkirk	McDiarmid Park, Perth
15:00	Swanson 25' (pen.), 38' (pen.) MacLean 68' Craig 16'	SPFL Report	Watson  24'	Attendance: 2,725 Referee: Bobby Madden

Brechin City v St Johnstone

26 July 2016 (2016-07-26) Group B	Brechin City	1 – 1 (4–2 p)	St Johnstone	Glebe Park, Brechin
19:45	Jackson 35' Graham  73'	SPFL Report	Kane 86'	Attendance: 912 Referee: John McKendrick
	Penalties
	Hill Dyer Graham Trouten Love		Swanson Kane Cummins Coulson

St Johnstone v Stirling Albion

30 July 2016 (2016-07-30) Group B	St Johnstone	4 – 0	Stirling Albion	McDiarmid Park, Perth
15:00	Anderson 4' MacLean 33' Craig 43' Wotherspoon 90+2'	SPFL Report	Ferns  56' McKenzie  90+3'	Attendance: 2,858 Referee: Barry Cook

St Johnstone v Hearts

10 August 2016 Second Round	St Johnstone	3 – 2	Hearts	McDiarmid Park, Perth
19:45	Swanson 10' 75' (pen.) McKay 80' Paton  45' Swanson  71' Alston  76'	SPFL Report	Paterson 43' Walker 45' (pen.) Cowie  9' Murihead  54' Ozturk  74' Rossi  81'	Attendance: 4,214 Referee: Crawford Allan

Aberdeen v St Johnstone

22 September 2016 Quarter final	Aberdeen	1 – 0	St Johnstone	Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen
19:45	Rooney 90' Maddison  7' Shinnie  34'	BBC Report SPFL Report	Shaughnessy  11' Wotherspoon  45' Paton  51' Swanson  67' Davidson  80'	Attendance: 8,829 Referee: Craig Thomson (referee)

Scottish Cup

Main article: 2016-17 Scottish Cup

St Johnstone v Stenhousemuir

21 January 2017 Fourth Round	St Johnstone	2 – 0	Stenhousemuir	McDiarmid Park
15:00	MacLean 6' Alston 32'	Report	Kerr  52' McMenamin  64' Ciaran Summers  82'	Attendance: 2,441 Referee: Euan Anderson

St Johnstone v Partick Thistle

11 February 2017 Fifth Round	St Johnstone	0 – 1	Partick Thistle	McDiarmid Park
15:00	MacLean  40' Swanson  75'	Report	Barton 7' Welsh  65' Devine  72'	Attendance: 2,884 Referee: Steven McLean

Squad statistics

Appearances

As of 21 May 2017 ^[5]

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Premiership		League Cup		Scottish Cup
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	NIR	Alan Mannus	17	0	12+2	0	3	0	0	0
2	DF	SCO	Dave Mackay	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	DF	SCO	Tam Scobbie	20	0	14+2	0	4	0	0	0
4	MF	SCO	Blair Alston	42	3	25+10	2	4+1	0	1+1	1
6	DF	SCO	Steven Anderson	34	4	26	3	6	1	2	0
7	MF	SCO	Chris Millar	22	0	14+3	0	3	0	2	0
8	MF	SCO	Murray Davidson	26	3	19+4	3	2	0	1	0
9	FW	SCO	Steven MacLean	39	12	30+2	9	4+1	2	2	1
10	MF	SCO	David Wotherspoon	38	2	20+13	1	2+1	1	2	0
11	MF	SCO	Danny Swanson	38	15	28+2	10	5+1	5	2	0
12	GK	SCO	Zander Clark	31	0	26	0	3	0	2	0
14	DF	IRL	Joe Shaughnessy	46	2	38	1	6	1	2	0
15	DF	WAL	Clive Smith	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
17	FW	SCO	Michael Coulson	18	0	7+7	0	1+3	0	0	0
18	MF	NIR	Paul Paton	34	1	22+6	1	3+3	0	0	0
19	DF	SCO	Richard Foster	34	1	33	1	0	0	1	0
22	DF	SCO	Keith Watson	6	1	3+1	1	1	0	1	0
24	DF	SCO	Brian Easton	45	0	37	0	6	0	2	0
25	FW	SCO	Chris Kane	32	6	14+11	5	2+3	1	0+2	0
26	MF	SCO	Liam Craig	44	6	27+9	5	5+1	1	0+2	0
27	MF	SCO	Craig Thomson	11	1	2+7	1	1+1	0	0	0
28	DF	SCO	Ally Gilchrist	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
29	FW	IRL	Graham Cummins	36	6	17+13	5	3+1	1	2	0
31	MF	SCO	Greg Hurst	1	0	0+1	0	0	0	0	0
33	FW	SCO	George Hunter	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
36	DF	SCO	Cameron Thompson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
49	MF	ENG	Daniel Jardine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Players who left the club during the 2016–17 season
15	DF	SCO	Brad McKay (joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle)	3	1	2	0	0+1	1	0	0
20	FW	NIR	Joe Gormley (joined Cliftonville)	2	0	0+1	0	1	0	0	0
Players who left the club on loan during the 2016–17 season
23	DF	SCO	Liam Gordon (on loan to Peterhead)	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
32	MF	SCO	Connor McLaren (on loan to Stirling Albion)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
39	DF	SCO	Aaron Comrie (on loan to Peterhead)	1	0	0+1	0	0	0	0	0

Goalscorers

As of 21 May 2017

Ranking	Nation	Number	Name	Scottish Premiership	League Cup	Scottish Cup	Total
1		11	Danny Swanson	10	5	0	15
2		10	Steven MacLean	9	2	1	12
3		25	Chris Kane	5	1	0	6
		26	Liam Craig	5	1	0	6
		29	Graham Cummins	5	1	0	6
6		10	Steven Anderson	3	1	0	4
7		4	Blair Alston	2	0	1	3
		8	Murray Davidson	3	0	0	3
9		10	David Wotherspoon	1	1	0	2
		14	Joe Shaughnessy	1	1	0	2
11		15	Brad McKay	0	1	0	1
		18	Paul Paton	1	0	0	1
		19	Richard Foster	1	0	0	1
		22	Keith Watson	1	0	0	1
		27	Craig Thomson	1	0	0	1
			Own Goal	2	0	0	2
TOTALS				39	14	2	55

Team statistics

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
2	Aberdeen	38	24	4	10	74	35	+39	76	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
3	Rangers	38	19	10	9	56	44	+12	67	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	St Johnstone	38	17	7	14	50	46	+4	58
5	Heart of Midlothian	38	12	10	16	55	52	+3	46
6	Partick Thistle	38	10	12	16	38	54	−16	42

Source: Scottish Premiership, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification and second stage group allocation).^[6]
Notes:

1. Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.

Transfers

Players in Date Player From Fee 3 May 2016 Keith Watson St Mirren Free[7] 26 May 2016 Blair Alston Falkirk Free[8] 7 June 2016 Paul Paton Dundee United Free[9] 1 July 2016 Michael Coulson York City Free[10] 1 July 2016 Joe Gormley Peterborough United Loan[11] 19 August 2016 Richard Foster Ross County Free[12] 31 January 2017 Clive Smith Preston North End Loan[13] Players out Date Player To Fee 9 June 2016 Neil Martyniuk Edinburgh City Free[14] 28 June 2016 John Sutton St Mirren Free[15] 13 July 2016 Gareth Rodger Brechin City Free[16] 31 August 2016 Brad McKay Inverness Caledonian Thistle Free[17] 15 September 2016 Dave Mackay Retired [18] 4 January 2017 Aaron Comrie Peterhead Loan[19] 4 January 2017 Liam Gordon Peterhead Loan[20] 6 January 2017 Connor McLaren Stirling Albion Loan[21]

See also

• List of St Johnstone F.C. seasons