Alex Mitchell calls for fortress McDiarmid Park as St Johnstone target home form improvement

St Johnstone must finally turn McDiarmid Park into the fortress teams despise this season, defender Alex Mitchell insists.

Form at the Perth stadium has been below par and you’d need to track back to November for the last three-points on home soil.

Across the league campaign so far, only three wins have been recorded at the Fair City venue as Aberdeen now visit tomorrow afternoon.

“You obviously want to make your home ground your fortress so it has been frustrating,” admitted centre-half Mitchell.

“We need to start games with intent because we are much better when we get that first goal.

“We seem to like going away from home, like our record shows. But for all the people who are turning up, we need to make it better.

“Some of the highs have been very high and the lows, low. The fans have stuck with us. Every player and member of staff appreciates that more than you would believe. It is massive to know people are backing you and turning out in numbers.

“We just need to get that home form better and we can have a really good end to the season.”

Mitchell says the poor home form has not applied any additional pressure when running out at McDiarmid Park.

He explained: “As a footballer, you put pressure on yourself. There is pressure to meet your demands. But the gaffer keeps us relaxed and is really good like that.

“The teams he picks are more than good enough to grab all three points, so it is up to us to do the business on the pitch.”

Before the international break – what a successful one it was for Scotland – Saints had played out a 1-1 draw away at Kilmarnock.

“We go into every single game wanting to win so we were frustrated we couldn’t get three points against Kilmarnock,” Mitchell said.

“How we started wasn’t good