DREY CAN BE EVEN BETTER
Boss delighted with summer signing’s progress
Drey Wright is impressing boss Tommy Wright Tommy Wright is hoping flying midfielder Drey Wright can continue to prove how impressive a signing he has been.
The 23-year-old has played a part in all 10 of the Perth side’s Premiership games since joining on a free from Colchester United in the summer.
Now boss Wright is backing the winger to lift his performance level even further and start chipping in with some goals.
“Drey took a bit of a knock on Saturday but should be alright,” Wright told the Perthshire Advertiser. “We have no other fresh injuries.
“Drey has been getting better with each game. We watched him for quite a while so we knew his qualities.
“We were really pleased to get him. It wasn’t underhand but we did use the cross-border rules to our advantage.
“Without them we wouldn’t have been able to get him because in five years here as the manager I haven’t paid a transfer fee.
“And Colchester would have been looking for a fee well into six figures in terms of compensation.
“It would probably have been around £300,000 going to another club down south but we didn’t even get into that sort of detail.
“It was just good that Drey chose to come to us.
“He did extremely well getting us a penalty against St Mirren because Lee Hodson certainly isn’t slow.
“He still has some improvement to make. We want more goals from Drey and more end product.
“But he has turned in a consistently high level of performance since coming to the club. Let’s hope that vein of form continues. He has settled in really well and hopefully he will have a big season for us.”
Top goalscorer Tony Watt endured a difficult afternoon against St Mirren at the weekend which included missing a second half penalty.
But manager Wright is backing the forward to bounce back in style.
He said: “You just persevere when a striker like Tony has a game like that. He didn’t miss the chances deliberately.
“He was in the right positions and he was brave enough to take the penalty.
“Anyone can miss a penalty – Liam missed one as well – and I wanted him to take it.
“Tony will obviously want to start scoring goals again but he is a bubbly character and won’t need much said to him.
“He shouldn’t feel under any
pressure. “I have a decision to make with the penalty taker and whether or not Tony is on them again.”
Saints will be looking to secure a third Premiership win on the spin when they travel to take on Livingston on Wednesday night.
Wright has been impressed with the league’s newcomers who currently sit fourth in the standings on 18 points.
“TheonethingaboutLivingstonisthat they are proving extremely difficult to beat,”Wright said.
“I think it is seven unbeaten and that doesn’t come through luck, it is down to hard work, being organised and asking questions of the opposition.
“We know where their strengths lie. They have got six goals from set plays in recent matches, with four in one game against Dundee.
“They have a physical presence and a good delivery. They keep it simple and don’t overcomplicate the game, which is good.
“Weknowwhatthechallengeisgoing to be and we have to make sure we are up for it.
“In the last two games we have shown how versatile we can be.
“We battled hard at Motherwell and against St Mirren we played really good football and dominated them from start to finish.”
Danny Swanson returns to the Saints squad after serving his two-game suspension.