If penalty-taking responsibility is up for grabs, David Wotherspoon will be raising his hand in the McDiarmid Park dressing room.
St Johnstone missed two spot-kicks against St Mirren on Saturday, with Tony Watt and Liam Craig the men who failed to find the back of the net.
But by that point Wotherspoon had put the Perth men in front and Matty Kennedy’s late second meant sure the penalty double didn’t come back to haunt them.
Manager Tommy Wright will now have to decide who is first pick if Saints are awarded another one at Livingston on Wednesday night and the former Hibs man is happy to be considered.
“I’ll put my name in the hat,” he said. “Definitely.
“I’ve missed a couple in the past but I would always put my name forward.
“I’m sure there will be a few boys lining up to take them.
“Listen, we missed a couple of penalties in this game but it’s not a big deal because we got the three points.”
Wotherspoon will certainly be full of confidence after scoring his first goal of the season – a side-foot finish at the back post after Watt had failed to connect with an over-head kick attempt.
“I was delighted to get on the scoresheet,” he said. “But, more importantly, we got three crucial points.
“We performed well in the first half, kept our shape and did well defensively.
“Their keeper made a couple of good saves and then in the second half we kept up the momentum and got our rewards in the end.
“The penalties are in the back of your mind and that the other team could get a lift from it but we didn’t let that happen. We kept our foot on the gas and got the second goal which made it more comfortable.”
Saints are a team on a roll and will be confident of making it three wins in a row in midweek, even if their opponents are in good form as well.
Wotherspoon said: “We’ve picked up full points in our last two games and we’ll look to do that again on Wednesday night.
“You can see that Livingston will be a tough team to break down by the fact they’ve conceded so few goals.
“But we’ve got a good squad here and we can definitely get points there.”
There was much for manager Tommy Wright to be satisfied with in this contest. They had two close-things in the first half – excellent saves from Watt and Kennedy headers – and were even more dominant in the second period.
A Watt miss – still at 0-0 – was the sort that would give a striker nightmares if his team doesn’t win. And then there were the two penalties.
“I thought we were outstanding,” said Wright. “Particularly in the second half.
“We created numerous opportunities and if truth be told they could have had no complaints if we’d come away with five or six.
“There were two penalty misses and the goalkeeper has probably had save of the season from Tony in the first half. There were a few other chances missed in the second half.
“I’m particularly pleased with how we managed the game at 1-0 after missing two penalties. We kept looking to go forward.
“If you can get 14 or 15 points in each group of 11 games you’ll not be far off competing for top six. We’ve got one more game to go and we’re sitting on 14.”
St Mirren had a strong penalty claim of the their own in the first half but Stephen McGinn didn’t want to paper over the cracks of a timid attempt – if it could be called that – at getting a win or even a draw when they were chasing the game.
“We were competitive in the game but after we went behind it ran away from us,” he said. “You need to be far more street-wise in this league.
“Even the St Johnstone players were saying that was as clear-cut a penalty was you’re going to see. That’s the way things are going for us at the minute.
“But we don’t want to use it as an excuse because St Johnstone were far better than us in the second half.”
