The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Belief in squad strong as Wright looks forward
ST JOHNSTONE: Saints boss remaining positive after ‘rough time’
St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright has insisted that the Perth team have to “look forward” as they seek to end a sixgame run without scoring against Hibs on Saturday.
The Perth boss admitted that his players had endured a “rough time” in recent weeks but his faith in them is as strong as ever.
“You have to look back and learn, which is what we’ve done,” said Wright. “But it’s time to look forward now.
“We are only four points off Motherwell.
“It has been a rough time lately but we’re all positive.
“It has been a tough schedule, we have played a lot of the top teams and we haven’t picked up the points we’re capable of.
“It hasn’t been nice but we are all very much together, my belief in the players is the same – I still believe in them strongly.”
Saints will be seeking to strengthen up front in January but Wright stressed that responsibility for getting the goals flowing again doesn’t rest only with the forwards.
He said: “When a team is not scoring goals that is obviously an area you have to look at, but it’s creating as well from wide areas and midfield.
“So everyone has to look to help the strikers.”
Meanwhile, Wright is hopeful that injured left-back Brian Easton will be back for a busy December.
He said: “Brian is going to be out for another four weeks, which isn’t as long as we thought it could be.
“The good thing is we have a break because Motherwell are in the cup final so he’s not going to miss that much football.
“After Saturday we don’t have a game until December, which is going to be a very busy month so hopefully we’ll have him back for that.”
Wright added: “Michael O’halloran, Chris Millar and Murray Davidson will return to training this week but Stefan Scougall won’t because he suffered a muscle injury in training.
“He will be about a week to 10 days from when he did it so he won’t be available for Hibs this weekend.”
enicolson@thecourier.co.uk
Prolific Dundalk striker David Mcmillan could be a St Johnstone player “sooner rather than later”, Perth boss Tommy Wright revealed.
The Mcdiarmid Park manager and chairman Steve Brown watched the 28-year-old in action in last weekend’s FAI Cup final at the Aviva Stadium.
The forward, who has scored 51 goals in 116 appearances, including five in Champions League qualifiers, has also been across to Scotland for talks with Saints.
Wright reported: “We went to the cup final the other week to look at a couple of players.
“David is a striker I know a lot about and have liked for a long time now.
“I hope we can get that done. He’s been over here and spent a day looking around the club and speaking to me.
“I would like it to happen sooner rather than later, but he’s quite rightly away having a break now because the season is finished there now.”