Drey Wright is creating a nice little goal of the season competition for himself.
The St Johnstone wing-back is now at a career high six for the 2022/23 campaign after securing his team a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock on Saturday.
He’ll hopefully score a few more to make the choice of the year’s personal best even tougher.
But at the moment, the fact he’s smashed one past a mate in such an important fixture is going to take some beating – even if another one from outside the box got the better of a former England and Premier League-winning goalkeeper.
“The Kilmarnock goalkeeper is a friend of mine, Sam Walker,” said Wright. “I played with him for a number of years.
“Against my mate or against Joe Hart?
“Sammy had no chance with that today, but I think Joe could have probably done better. We get a point today so I’ll go for this one.
“I gave him a text earlier in the week saying that I’ll probably score against him at the weekend and it’s come true. It’ll be interesting texting tonight, I imagine!
“The space opened up earlier and I caught it quite sweetly and then obviously it presents itself again.
“I’m not going to turn that opportunity down, and luckily it flew in.”
Wright is in with a good chance of finishing the season as Saints’ top scorer – he’s back on level terms with Stevie May in the Premiership.
Team wins and league position are the focus as the split looms large rather than individual accolades, though.
“I think I’ve said before, I’ve never really been one to kind of worry about myself getting the numbers,” said Wright.
“If I scored 10 goals and we lost those 10 games, I wouldn’t be happy.
“It’s about the team picking up points, especially at this stage of the season. So I’m happy to contribute again.
“We’ve take something out of the game and it could be a big point for us at the end of the year.
“I’m still looking up the way but there’s one less game to make the top six.
“It’s a challenge we’ve got to rise to and we need to perform more like we did in the second half – defending our box well and creating chances.”
One of worst halves ever
Wright could scarcely believe the collective display he was part of in the first 45 at Rugby Park.
“We’ve had some poor performances, especially poor halves in games going back to the bad run we were on, but I think that probably tops it,” he said.
“That was one of the worst halves I’ve ever been involved in.
“And we all knew it.
“To a man, not one of us could walk into the dressing at half-time thinking they’d been anywhere near good enough.
“But most important thing was the reaction in the second half and I think we got that. So we’ve got to try and take the positives from that.”
Wright added: “It was just a catalogue of errors – I include myself in that. I was nowhere near good enough and it was a theme for the team.
“We were making mistakes and then we make the same mistakes five to 10 minutes later and then again 10 minutes after that.
“The manager didn’t need to come in and say anything because you know that as a professional yourself, it’s nowhere near acceptable.
“Especially at this point in the season as well. Which is why it probably hurt as much as it did.”
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