St Johnstone have been “crying out” for athleticism in central midfield, according to Remi Matthews.
And the young duo who brought energy and control to that part of the pitch have hopefully provided the solution.
On-loan goalkeeper Matthews was greatly impressed by the performances of Cammy MacPherson and Dan Phillips in the 1-0 weekend Scottish Cup defeat to Rangers.
The middle of the park has been a problem area for Saints in a five-game losing run that has now become six.
But that certainly was the case when MacPherson and Phillips matched up against the likes of Ryan Jack and John Lundstram on Saturday.
“We all know how well they did,” said Matthews.
“The gaffer’s praised them. They were solid.
“Cammy was brilliant on the ball and so was Dan.
“Dan gets about and never stops running. You saw that.
Dan Phillips btw 👏
Have to give him a proper run in the team, preferably using the same system that we used tonight
— SJFCFANS (@SJFCFANS) January 21, 2023
“We’ve been crying out for that in the last couple of weeks so it was positive to see, lovely to see. So happy days.
“Dan works hard in training. He’s always one of the better players in small-sided games.
“You can see that when he gets on the ball, he likes to try and get it turned out and play out the other side.
“That makes such a big difference. I can only speak highly of Dan.”
Corner turned?
On the wider issue of the collective one to 11 display, Matthews believes a corner was turned, even in defeat.
“Absolutely,” said the Englishman.
“I think everyone could see, from our fans to their fans and you guys, that this was a solid performance from us from front to back.
“We’ve just got to push on now and give the same again next week at Ibrox.
“We’ve got to take the positives from here and move on to Saturday.”
Matthews had two centre-halves in front of him rather than three for the first time as a Saints player.
It won’t be a one-off.
“We did a lot of work on the back four,” said the Crystal Palace keeper. “The gaffer did a lot of work building into this game and it sets the standard where we know what we’ve got to do.
“I thought Gordy (Liam Gordon) and Andy (Considine) were excellent, Monty (Adam Montgomery) was superb, Browny (James Brown) did well until he had to come off and then Drey (Wright) filled in well.
“The goal is obviously a wonder strike in the end. It’s one of them. Sometimes you’ve got to hold your hands up.”
Fans back soon
Matthews hopes that there won’t be any lingering disunity between supporters and the club now that the fan boycott of the Rangers game has taken place.
“We probably missed the fans in the last 10,” he said, “To give us that push.
“But whatever has happened has happened and we need to put that to bed.
“Hopefully we can give the fans a bit more to be happy about. We need them there on Saturday and we can’t wait to see them.
“Look, the last couple of weeks haven’t been good enough but we know that as a team and a club. We can only go off what we’ve done on Saturday and build on it.”
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