Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
McGowan – Saints have had a bad recipe for Premiership success
“WE don’t score enough goals and we don’t keep enough clean sheets. That’s a pretty bad recipe to have.”
If ever there was a quote that sums up the 2023-24 St Johnstone, it’s this one.
Ryan McGowan didn’t know whether to be shocked or not after another upturn in the Perth club’s season proved to be a false dawn.
Two goals conceded to Kilmarnock from crosses into their box and some huffing and puffing at the other end made for a hugely frustrating afternoon at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
Asked if he was surprised at this latest dip, McGowan said: “Yes and no.
“It’s the reason why we are where we are in the league.
“We’re not consistent enough. It’s not acceptable.
“Harsh words were said at half-time and at fulltime but I’ve been around the block for long enough to know that those words aren’t really relevant.
“You need to perform on the pitch and keep to a certain standard.
“Too many of us fall below that.
“One week we can do the basics well and have a bit of quality in the final third. At other times those basics are nowhere to be seen and we lack that quality.
“That’s where we need to improve – myself included.
“We have to be better and perform at a standard week in, week out.
“You take what you get after that.
“St Johnstone as a club and a fan base deserve that.
“Those standards were here for over a decade. You always knew what you were going to get from a St Johnstone team.
“This season we’ve dropped below that far too many times.”
The Premiership campaign is just five games from its end and time is running out for Saints to win two on the bounce.
“We played relatively well against Dundee even though we didn’t get a result and then played better against Hibs and got the result,” said McGowan.
“We were worthy winners that day.
“You’d like to have thought that would have been us starting to find a bit of rhythm.
“Then we dish up that. “The reason we are where we are in the league is that we can’t string good performances together.
“We haven’t won two in a row all season.
“Kilmarnock are very good at what they do but it’s a home game for us and we should have been looking to be on the front foot.
“We didn’t start well, which made it an uphill battle. It’s really disappointing.”
With Livingston 99.9% certainties for automatic relegation, the Saints mission for the post-split fixtures is plain – stay ahead of Ross County and out of the play-offs.
“I was a lot more confident before this performance that we’d get the results we need,” said McGowan.
“It’s raw and it hurts so soon after the game.
“We need to reset. We’ll find out what are fixtures are and we’ve got two weeks to prepare for the first of them.
“We have to be aware that we’re in a massive relegation battle and we need to find that consistency of performance between now and the end of the season that will get us the results required.”