THAT WAS OLD SCHOOL SAINTS Praise for the defence as Perth men climb table
Dominant defender Jason Kerr hailed his Perth mates for standing up to Hearts and recording a first clean sheet of the league season.
The McDiarmid skipper was thrilled with the determined nature of Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory and likened it to an “old school” St Johnstone win.
Kerr and the home defence stood up to the challenge presented by a Jambos frontline which included Uche Ikpeazu and former Saint Steven MacLean.
And that was massively pleasing for the 22-year-old who has now helped guide the Perth side to back-to-back Premiership wins and up to eighth in the standings.
“It was obviously good to get off the bottom of the table but we won’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves,” Kerr said.
“That’s two good back-toback performances which we’re delighted with.
“And for me and the back four it was great to get our first clean sheet of the season.
“It’s got the monkey off our back. The old St Johnstone teams always used to get the first goal and when they did that you would always think they were going to go on and win the game.
“The confidence went through the team when we got the goal and we got the cleansheet and the win on the back of it. It was like an old school St Johnstone win.
“They sent Berra up front at the end and I thought we defended magnificently when they were trying to get the equaliser.
“As young as Wallace and Anthony are I thought they were brilliant. We’ve been scrutinised over the last few weeks which has been fair but we were really good against Hearts.
“It’s a young back four. There won’t be many in the country let alone in the Premiership to have a defence that young.
“Hopefully we can follow this clean sheet up with more.”
Kerr was impressed with how central defensive partner Wallace Duffy handled himself midweek and is expecting him to improve further as the season moves on.
“We knew that they would target me and Wallace and punt long balls up to Ikpeazu but I thought we dealt with that well,” Kerr continued.
“For Wallace, these have been the first few Premiership games of his career. He’s going to make mistakes but he was brilliant on Wednesday.
“It’s now good to get a break because we’ve had two tough games.
“We’ll be raring to go again when Hibs come here next weekend and we’ll be trying to get even further up the table.”
Saints manager Tommy Wright was quick to praise his defence in the aftermath of the match, describing his two centre-halves as magnificent.
“I felt it was a well deserved win,” he added. “I don’t think Zander had a save to make all night.
“Overall we had a lot of good performances. Ali McCann is forming a good partnership with Murray Davidson.
“And Murray has been back to his best in the last couple of games. Long may that continue.”