Break’s just right for the Saintees
Easton reckons players need to recharge batteries
Brian Easton believes the winter break has come at a beneficial time for St Johnstone.
The Scottish Premiership shuts down until January 25 and the full-back reckons it’s now important for a period of rest and recuperation.
Saints entered the season interval – and the New Year – on a disappointing note with a 3-0 derby day defeat against Dundee at Dens Park. But Easton says the result won’t be playing on the minds of Perth players.
“I think the break is coming at the right time after a difficult month,” he told the Perthshire Advertiser. “We’ve done well but it would have been nice to end it on a real high on Saturday. “The break will allow us to take care of any aches and pains and we will be concentrating on putting this defeat out of our minds and we will go and enjoy time with our families. “The main thing for me is to get the feet up and relax to let the legs recuperate. “It was obviously a really disappointing result against Dundee. To lose three goals to one of your rivals, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. It was three poor goals to lose, so we’ve only got ourselves to blame.
“We had a lot of the ball and got forward well but we can’t give away three goals like that and expect to be winning games.”
Despite the Hogmanay loss to Dundee, Easton insists it’s been another positive season for Saints. And he is determined to keep that going when action returns.
The 28-year-old said: “We were looking to go joint fourth with Hearts after they dropped points against Aberdeen, it would’ve been a nice way to go into the new year. “It would have been good to keep the pressure on Aberdeen and Rangers as well as maintaining the gap between all the teams
below us.
“All these things, when you look at it, makes it all the more disappointing that we didn’t get a result against Dundee.
“But it has been a great year and to end 2016 sitting in fifth place with 28 points is pretty good. The signs are there that we are going to keep getting stronger, especially after the winter break.
“We’ve been pretty consistent over the course of the season and results like Saturday’s and the game against Ross County at home where we have shipped silly goals have been few and far between.
“Most of the season we’ve been playing really well for the majority of the games and we have to keep that going.
“If we play well we know results will come and we want to cement our top six position while staying in touch with the teams above us.” St Johnstone are next in competitive action on Saturday, January 21 against Stenhousemuir in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. It’s a 3pm kick off at McDiarmid
Park. Easton (left) will use the time off from competitive action for rest and recovery