Tommy Wright watched his St Johnstone side beaten by a freak own goal against Kilmarnock – and insists his side will have to defend better if they are to beat Rangers at Ibrox on Tuesday night.
Killie striker Josh Magennis’s header in the 40th minute cancelled out midfielder David Wotherspoon’s 16th minute opener for the McDiarmid Park side.
But all the Ladbrokes Premiership points remained in Ayrshire for the first time this season when Rory McKenzie’s cross from wide on the right in the 58th minute appeared to strike Saints left-back Brian Easton before looping over goalkeeper Alan Mannus.
After the 2-1 win, the Perth side turned their attention to their Scottish League Cup tie against Championship leaders Rangers – who have started the season with 11 successive wins.
And after conceding 15 goals in eight league matches, Wright said: “The goal is obviously disappointing because it is a bit freakish.
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“But from our point of view we have three, four, five opportunities to clear the ball in the build-up and we didn’t do it – and we ended up getting punished for it.
“I haven’t been happy for a while with the number of goals we have been conceding. It is not that teams are tearing us apart and it is backs to the wall for us – it is not dealing with certain situations in the game and that is down to individuals.
“The ball into the box to one striker – we have to deal with that. People have to take responsibility. We haven’t been ruthless enough in our defending as a team.
“We haven’t been good enough and that’s why we have conceded so many goals. It has to stop and it has to get better.”
Killie boss Locke was left with a bitter-sweet feeling after the first home league win of the season was tempered by a double injury to star goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald, which makes him a doubt for their home Scottish League Cup tie against Hearts on Wednesday night.
The former Gorgie keeper collapsed while setting himself for a Liam Craig shot seconds after the break, then limped off in the 52nd minute to be replaced by Conor Brennan.
Locke, who also lost defender Darryl Westlake to injury in the first half, said: “I was disappointed with the games we lost earlier in the season and had a couple of worrying nights.
“But I have always known what the players are capable of and I saw that today. I thought we played really well in the game and deserved to win.
“I was disappointed with the goal we lost but apart from that I thought we put in a great shift.
“But the injuries are not great. We will assess Jamie tomorrow but it will be a blow if it is anything serious. It’s his ankle and his knee, he just kind of got caught.
“We will see how he is. Hopefully a scan is not required but it’s certainly worrying when we didn’t see anyone near him and he went down.”