I want to stay and fight for my place
Tanser loving life at Saints and is targeting new deal
Saints defender Scott Tanser Scott Tanser feels at home in Perth and is now determined to win himself an extended St Johnstone deal.
The full-back’s McDiarmid Park contract is up at the end of the season but he is far from ready to leave.
Tanser has started the last two Scottish Premiership fixtures and his performances have earned the plaudits of manager Tommy Wright.
Formerly of Rochdale and Port Vale, the 23-year-old knows how important it is to continue to impress and keep hold of a starting place.
“There is always competition for places. If someone gets injured, you need to take your chance and I think I have done that,” Tanser said.
“I’m enjoying Scottish football. I’ve had time to settle in now and have a look at what it is all about. I think it is where I belong.
“Everything is going well and I’m hoping to get some security now and push on for a new contract.
“I’ve been speaking to my family and I want to be up here for a while. That is my main aim.
“I knew it would be a good place to be when I first arrived.
“As soon as I got here I felt at home and having my family up here is always a bonus.”
Tanser played the full 90 minutes in Saturday’s dramatic victory against Hibernian and he admits the celebrations were special.
He said: “In the first half we did well but I thought it still wasn’t good enough.
“We started to create more chances and were getting more people in the box, which we had been working on in training.
“As everyone knows, we haven’t been scoring recently.
“After the team talk at half-time we all came together and found something within ourselves to fight even harder.
“That work ethic helped to award us the victory in the end.
“It was a good feeling when the first goal went in to end the drought.
“But you can’t beat a last minute winner because those are the moments you want to be a part of in football.
“Those are the memories that you will cherish forever. The fans have been sticking by us when results haven’t been going well.
“The fans who travelled on Saturday gave us all of their support and it was great to repay them with the result.
“I’ve not seen celebrations like that for a while so it was a special moment for us.”
While Tanser was pleased with his personal performance at Easter Road,
Scott Tanser the team comes first.
He explained: “I was happy with my performance but more importantly the team’s performance was unbelievable.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game and that Martin Boyle was a good player.
“But it can be a mental game and if you know someone is faster than you, you need to outplay them mentally.
“I think I managed to do that and I didn’t give him any time on the ball.
“The whole dressing room is very together and we are always backing each other and supporting each other. There are no individuals.
“It would have been nice for me to get straight back into the action.
“It seems like the games are every other week at the moment.
“It will be good to get back to straight Saturdays and, for me, that will help with gaining match fitness.”
Saints were this week drawn to play Albion Rovers away in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. It will be played on January 20 or 21.