Young St Johnstone star Jackson Mylchreest setting sights on more first team involvement

Jackson Mylchreest is targeting more first team involvement after getting a special taste for it towards the end of last season.

The St Johnstone striker, just 16 years of age and who does not turn 17 until late September, has been impressing within the Perth club’s youth ranks.

But he was handed a spot on the bench for the senior team against Aberdeen at the beginning of April and then against Dundee United early May.

Being involved in that type of environment provided under-18 star Mylchreest with a taste for the top and he loved the experience.

“Being involved with the first team has been great,” Mylchreest said. “I remember the gaffer saying I could go round the back to train and I was thinking ‘wow’.

“I was a bit nervous but the first team boys welcome you in and don’t make you feel the pressure.”

He recalls fondly the moment he was made aware that a spot on the first team’s bench had been made available for him.

“We’d had a youth game against Ayr on a Friday night and I’d been taken off on half-time,” Mylchreest smiles.

“Liam Craig then told me I was to be on the bench for the first team that weekend. I’d like to try to keep getting on the bench and also impressing for the under-18s.”

Mylchreest has enjoyed a very productive couple of years with Saints and, recently, played a starring role in the CAS Performance League title win. He scored the opener and set-up the late winner in a 2-1 decider against Kilmarnock.

“I missed the penalty in that last game and then thought to myself that I owed the team one,” he explained to the PA.

“The boys and Liam Craig kept telling me ‘keep going, Jacko’ and that helped me. I managed to get the goal and then the assist for Adam McMillan at the end, which topped everything off.

“Al