Simo Valakari: St Johnstone were ‘soft’ in defeat to Motherwell and only have themselves to blame

St Johnstone paid the penalty for being “soft” against Motherwell, according to Perth boss, Simo Valakari.

The McDiarmid Park side conceded the opening goal from a bread and butter cross to the back post, finished off by Tawanda Maswanhise, and then went into the break 2-0 down after coughing up possession in their own half, with Tom Sparrow taking full advantage.

There was an improvement in the second 45 – Nicky Clark pulled a goal back after a VAR penalty for handball.

And Saints briefly thought they were leaving Lanarkshire with a point, only to see a Jack Sanders leveller chalked off, again after a VAR check and again for handball.

Valakari, though, admitted his team had given themselves too much work to do.

“We did not deserve anything, not after the first half,” said the Finn. “We were soft.

“A lot of things we have been talking about – we need to be competitive and stay in a match.

“But we put ourselves in too big a hole to climb out of – two goals down against a strong defensive side away from home.

“It wasn’t easy.

“The only thing I asked at half-time was that we show now what kind of team we are – these are the deciding 45 minutes to show what team we want to be.

“From that perspective, my players showed they have a heart, they have character and put everything into that second half to come back.

“But these crucial moments and decisions, we cannot get them on our side.

“They won’t come by wishing and hoping. We need to play better. Two counter-attack goals – we knew that they would do that.

“We didn’t track the runners, we lost the ball.

“When you do those things you get punished.

“We are not doubting and we are not giving up. We just need to do many things better.”

Raised voice

On his half-time team talk, Valakari said: “I was not angry. I was more sad and realistic.

“Because in this league, if you defend like we did in those moments then you cannot win the games.

“No point to be angry.

“But I raised my voice, the players understood that it’s not our level, it’s not good enough.

“It will happen in football but when you can’t win it, don’t lose it. But we did it to ourselves with those two goals so there is no one else to blame.”

Valakari had no argument with the Sanders equaliser being disallowed.

“I have not seen it but from what I have been told it was a hand, so with how the rules go it cannot lead to a goal so it was the right decision,” he said.

“The penalty? I don’t know what happened there either but I believe as well it was also the right decision.”