St Johnstone haven’t spent their week-and-a-bit without a game sitting about and congratulating themselves on a job well done, manager Tommy Wright insisted.
After getting themselves off the bottom of the Premiership table, goals have been reset.
“We have patted ourselves on the back for getting those wins against Hamilton and Hearts but now we have to get on with it,” said Wright, whose team face Hibs at McDiarmid Park tomorrow.
“The table is tight round about us.
“We certainly aren’t thinking everything in the garden is rosy. It’s certainly not.
“We know there’s a lot of hard work still to do to get us to where we want to be.
“So we have to keep picking up points.
“Results went fairly well for us at the weekend when we weren’t playing.
“We are only four points off Ross County in sixth place.
“But after two wins in a row we have another home game and we have to try and build on them against Hibs.
“It’s always important to get an unbeaten run together in this league.”
Meanwhile, Saints keeper Zander Clark has been delighted to see the team’s younger players prosper.
The talk had been of how inexperienced the defence was, in particular the central pairing of Jason Kerr and Wallace Duffy.
Clark said: “The squad is a young one and it has taken the boys a bit of time to gel and get used to how each other plays.
“But even the games that we had lost or drawn, we knew we weren’t far away and had deserved more.
“As the games have gone on the boys, and more so the young players, have started to come into their own.
“We knew we needed to start being more solid at the back.
“In the Hearts game, up against the big boy (Uche) Ikpeazu, I thought the defence was excellent.
“As a group they nullified Hearts to very little.
“The more games they play as a unit, the more understanding they get on the park.
“Over the last few weeks it has started to look more solid.”
Saints have shouldered the criticism and pressure that came with struggling at the wrong end of the table.
Now the heat is on the managerless Hibees, with Clark saying: “There were people on our backs so I know exactly how Hibs feel.
“But we just need to make sure we keep up our run and make sure their supporters are still on the back of their team at the end of the game.
“We know Hibs are a good side having already faced them this season.
“That was a game we probably should have won but in the end we need to score late on to get the equaliser.
“Like I always say, it’s all about what we do. We need to make sure we’re right at it and have the same attitude as the previous two games.
“The spirits have never been down in the changing room. Everyone was highlighting we were down the bottom of the table.
“But we knew we had the quality in the dressing room. We train with each other every day and knew everything would click.”
