Jacob Butterfield: St Johnstone arrivals will bring freshness and enthusiasm

Jacob Butterfield has witnessed what it takes to climb out of relegation trouble.

The St Johnstone midfielder was part of a Luton Town squad that battled to English Championship safety in the 2019/20 season.

On that occasion, Luton completed the great escape but Butterfield is planning on a quick rise up the table with Saints.

And three points against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena on Tuesday evening would certainly get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Saints are rooted to the bottom of the Premiership and sit two points back of 11th-placed Dundee, seven adrift of Ross County in 10th.

Butterfield said: “At Luton we were at the bottom end and ended up staying up on the last day of the season.

“We were strong favourites to go down with 11 or 12 games to go but put together a fantastic run. That came out of team spirit and hard work.

“If you’ve got a really good group of lads who believe in each other things can galvanise. We’ve definitely got the players here to get the results we need.

“This is another tight-knit squad, like we had at Luton.

“Everyone gets on really well. Having players who have been at a club a long time, which we have, and know the club and the league inside out always helps at times like this as well.

“And the new players bring freshness, enthusiasm and different qualities. It’s a good mix.”

Butterfield insists there is plenty of time to turn things around.

“We’ve still got loads of football left to play,” he said. “We will have plenty of opportunities to get the wins we need.

“We have had meetings individually and collectively about how we can turn things around. Everyone wants to step forward and take ownership.

“I have had a fairly long career to this point, playing a lot of football