Tommy Wright is convinced that “goals will come” for St Johnstone striker Stevie May.
The Perth club’s high-profile summer signing has yet to find the net in his second spell at McDiarmid Park and you have to go back over a year for his last outfield goal (against St Mirren in the Betfred Cup) and 16 months for his last Premiership outfield goal (against his current team).
But Wright believes more recent signs are encouraging.
“I’m seeing a lot of good stuff from Stevie,” he said. “He could have had a hat-trick against Motherwell.
“Their keeper had a great save from a brilliant flick late on and I thought Gallagher did extremely well to prevent him getting a clean contact on another chance.
“Maybe the Stevie May of old would have got a shot away in the first half but he opted to chop back inside and slipped.
“But it’s good that he is getting in there and the goals will come.
“We know he will get better.
“I did say when we signed Stevie there’s no real pressure on him.
“Ideally you want him to hit the ground running. But I know the goals will come if he keeps getting into good positions.”
Saints made a mess of their Betfred Cup clash with Saturday’s opponents Ross County at the start of the season and things haven’t got consistently better since then.
“The Ross County game here epitomised the way our season has gone,” he reflected. “Particularly the first half.
“We should have been three up at half-time.
“We missed chances and shot ourselves in the foot.
“That has to stop or it is going to be a really long season.
“County have made a good start. It’s precisely the start they’d have wished for coming back into the league.
“They have double figures in terms of points and are at the right end of the table.
“They have assembled a good squad. They followed up a win at Motherwell with a point at Kilmarnock.
“It is never an easy place to go.”