Tommy Wright has heard and read a lot of “drivel” talked and written in the wake of St Johnstone’s early Europa League exit.
And, after taking his time to digest the frustrating defeat to Lithuanian side FK Trakai, the Perth boss put the first qualifying round loss in context and insisted that there will be no league hangover.
“I think we need to put a lot of things in perspective after Europe,” he said.
“I don’t normally read the papers but you get dragged into the bigger picture when it’s Scottish teams in Europe.
“I’ve reflected on it for a few days. It’s disappointing from our point of view but it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden I’m a poor manager or the players are poor.
“The quality is still there in the squad.
“We had something like 59 entries into their penalty box in the two games. They had 17.
“You could say they did a St Johnstone on us. That proves what I always say, stats don’t win games. It’s only goals that do that.
“If you’d said to me we’d have that many good positions and only create what we did, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“I don’t like using excuses, but the more I reflect on it, when we play must have been a factor. Sharpness and having that killer instinct was lacking from us.
“We’ve been criticised and I’ve had to listen to a lot of drivel from certain quarters but we’re in a good position as a football club.
“People have come out and said things like, ‘in our day we won 16-0 against these teams’.
“The game has moved on since the days when you used to come up against players who weren’t as strong or organised.
“We went out to a team who had three or four players who would walk into most Premiership teams. There are two players who I would be interested in. Could I go and get them? No. I couldn’t afford them.
“Yes, we’re disappointed at going out and yes, we feel we’ve gone out to a team who we would probably beat at another stage of the season.
“But I look at what we’ve achieved over the last few years and this club is in a great position.
“Everybody’s talking about the ‘big five’ being back in the Premiership and it will be the natural order restored. We’ll, we’ll have to wait and see. I know this league is tough.
“We’re looking towards a bright future for this football club.”
On the broader theme of Scottish sides in Europe being under-cooked for a late June start, Wright added: “The problems haven’t been addressed because it’s the same every year. Has anyone sat down and done a feasibility study on summer football?
“I know what the problem for the clubs would be – financial.
“Any changes will be based on finance.”
One particular aspect of post- Europa exit analysis that Wright bristled at was the age of his squad.
He explained: “We were criticised about the average age of our team but nobody wrote that we had seven under-25s in the starting XI of the second leg and four of them were 22.
“Eight players in our squad are 22 and under.
“Ally Gilchrist has now made his debut. He’s 22 but he missed a year of football.
“There are good, young players coming through. They’ll be involved more.
“Under that, we’ve an under-17 team out of which we’ve promoted eight into our under-20s.
“It’s not all doom and gloom. The bottom line is the squad will be the envy of quite a few clubs.
“Clark’s come through the ranks, Gilchrist’s come through the ranks. Kane, Thomson, Comrie. Gordon has played.
“I’m not going to dwell on the disappointment of Europe. My focus is on getting the squad ready and they’ve proved what they can do over a league campaign.”
The hunt for attacking talent goes on but Wright knows that this is the hardest part of recruitment.
“Like 90% of the clubs, we’ve struggled to find a 20-goal a season man,” he said. “When we had one (Stevie May) we won the cup.
“We’re all looking for that extra bit of quality and spark at the top end of the pitch. That doesn’t mean the squad we have isn’t good.
“We do lack a bit of pace. I know that. But we lacked it last season and we coped with it.
“We still scored well over 50 goals in the league. The fact that we get goals from other areas proves what a good team we are.”
Saints still have a three-week wait for competitive action, given their pass through to the Betfred Cup group stages.
They play Sunderland tomorrow, Hartlepool the Saturday after, and another lower league club from England is expected at McDiarmid the weekend after that.
“We gave the players a few days off because they’d been back early,” said Wright.
“We’re back in to work hard. Hopefully we’re covered with the games we need. We’ve got Sunderland on Saturday, a closed-doors game against Rangers next week and then two friendlies organised for the two Saturdays. Both will be at home.”
