Wright can raise a glass to another top-six spot
ST JOHNSTONE clinching yet another top-six finish was lost in the red mist as team-mates Richard Foster and Danny Swanson brawled with each other at Superseal Stadium.
Despite succumbing to a narrow 1-0 loss against Hamilton last Saturday, results elsewhere ensured a sixth consecutive top-half finish for the Perth club.
In the last six seasons, only Saints and Celtic can lay claim to that feat. Once his anger at Foster and Swanson began to subside, Tommy Wright raised a glass of red and toasted his entire squad for punching above their weight again.
Top six is, the Saints boss acknowledges, an achievement belittled by many — but the Northern Irishman believes his modest club’s very own six-in-arow is well worth celebrating.
‘I tried to get the Press to concentrate on us finishing top six again on Saturday. But for some reason it was quite difficult,’ he quipped. ‘That night I went home and had a bottle of wine instead of a bottle of champagne. And when I woke up on Sunday, I was chuffed to bits with what we had achieved.
‘Critics maybe say it’s a lack of ambition being happy with top six, but it’s bloody well not! It’s bloody hard to get top six. I’ve been told that it’s only Celtic that can better our run over the past six seasons.
‘For us to do that is great, especially when you look at the clubs who haven’t done it. Aberdeen look like they will be a top-six club for a number of years to come, but they haven’t done it. Hearts, the Dundee teams, Hibs — clubs who are massively bigger than us — have not done it.
‘It’s a tremendous achievement for this club and I can’t speak highly enough of my players. There’s no danger we will take finishing top six for granted, either. You have to believe me when I say we start each season wanting to get away from a relegation battle. We are not big enough as a club that we can take it for granted.
‘If we were not to get a finish in the top four, we would still have had a great season. Other clubs have more pressure on them to finish in the top four. If they don’t, and they don’t get European football, that would be a failure for them. But not for us and now we are here (in fourth), we want to hold on to this position.’
One of those bigger teams facing more pressure is Hearts. A victory at McDiarmid Park tonight would see the Tynecastle side leapfrog Saints into fourth.
A defeat would see the visitors fall five points behind the Perth outfit, but Wright is not viewing it as his side’s biggest game of the season.
‘It’s too early to say that,’ he said. ‘Partick Thistle could also still get fourth, so there’s a lot to play for. But it’s a great situation to be in, going for fourth.
‘We have a great end to the season to look forward to, with a lot to play for at the right end of the table.
‘There’s many a team and many a supporter who will be looking over enviously at us and thinking: “How have they done that? How do they keep doing it?”. But it’s not at the stage yet of the Hearts game being win or bust.’
Hearts are toiling under rookie head coach Ian Cathro, with five losses in their last six games. But Wright (below) knows they have quality in their ranks.
‘They’ve a lot of internationals in their team and they have good players like Jamie Walker, Sam Nicholson and Don Cowie,’ said Wright. ‘Strikers Isma Goncalves and Bjorn Johnsen, as well.
‘They have more quality (than Saints) but whether they are a better team over the season, we will have to wait and see. I’ve only seen Hearts in person a couple of times since they brought in nine new players. January is a difficult time to bring players in and they’ve lacked consistency, sometimes even across 90 minutes of a game.
‘But I am expecting a tough match. They’ll be looking at this game as one to try and get ahead of us. But not many teams like coming here to McDiarmid Park. Hearts are not on a great run just now and we want to apply pressure to them from the first whistle.’