Thirty year old Niemi is seen by many as an automatic replacement for Saints current 'keeper Paul Jones. What is certain is that Saints now have two excellent 'keepers fighting for the number one jersey. Manager, Gordon Strachan has told Jones that he will now have to fight for his place. Strachan said: "I am a firm believer that pressure is a good thing and we want competition for places in all parts of the team.
"Everybody has pressure I have pressure. Antii is a quality goalkeeper at the right price.
"I tried to sign him when I was at Coventry five years ago and I am delighted he is on board now."
On the signing Chairman Rupert Lowe said, "I am delighted it is all sorted out. He has signed and we are now in the process of registering him.
"He is a quality goalkeeper who will certainly give us increased competition in that area. He is the right age and the right price and he speaks perfect English.
"He is the Finnish Number One and his quality can be seen by the fact he keeps Peter Enckelman out of the national side. And he played an absolute blinder to keep out Germany so that England qualified for the World Cup.
"We are confident he will be a tremendous addition to our squad and the fans will love him although it will be up to Gordon Strachan whether he plays tomorrow night."
Niemi is a top 'keeper and it surprised quite a few people when he was offloaded by Rangers. With some of the criticism levelled at Paul Jones in the last couple of seasons I don't think it will be long before we see Antii make his debut.