Sutton re-signs for St Mirren

By Kerr Hall

Former Motherwell, Hearts and St. Johnstone striker John Sutton has signed for St. Mirren after being released by the Perth club.

The Buddies, who he spent two years with from 2005-2007, have been linked with the 6ft 1 front man since the conclusion of the Scottish fixture list in May, and this morning completed the two-year deal.

Sutton enjoyed two succesful spells at Fir Park, first from 2008-2011, which saw him score 32 goals in just under a century of appearances, and he rejoined former 'Well manager Stuart McCall in 2013, signing from Hearts after a somewhat underwhelming couple of seasons in Edinburgh, to record his best goalscoring form of his career: hitting the back of the net 34 times in just 76 games.

The 32-year-old striker joined Tommy Wright's St. Johnstone at the end of the 2015/16 campaign, making his first appearance in the Saints' 1-0 defeat to Alashkert FC from Yerevan in the Europa League qualifiers. Sutton scored his only goal for his new club in a 4-3 defeat to former club Hearts on the opening day of the season at Tynecastle, but the goalscoring form of the Saints attack throughout the footballing year meant that the Englishman never received the run of games he was in hope of, and spent most last season on the bench.

Speaking to the club website after putting pen to paper in Paisley, he said:

"I met Alex probably a month or so ago and was really impressed by what he had to say. Certainly the squad of players he is getting in now, hopefully we can have a good season.

"It pretty much sold the move to me and it was just a case of waiting for everything to get sorted out and finalised, I've been looking forward to this for a little while now.

"I wasn't sure what to expect obviously, I love the club and had a brilliant time here in my first spell but it needs more than that to come back here and for us to do well and me to enjoy it.

"I think Alex convinced me that we can be successful here and hopefully I can play a part in that.''