Foster calls on Saints to ‘cut out silly mistakes’

St Johnstone need to “cut the silly mistakes out” to climb the Premiership table, according to new boy Richard Foster.

The former Rangers, Aberdeen and Ross County man scored a stunning goal in Inverness at the weekend, but it counted for nothing as Caley Thistle took all three points in injury time.

The full-back believes that the solution to getting back to winning ways after the international break is a straightforward one.

“We need to cut the silly mistakes out,” he said.

“We knew that (Greg) Tansey has a great delivery and he showed that on a number of occasions on Saturday. Especially the free-kick we’ve given away, he thrives on that kind of position.

“(Ross) Draper doesn’t have to do much with it because it’s such a good ball in. We need to work harder to cut out the silly free-kicks and giving away cheap corners. That’s what we need to ease the pressure on us. We’ll have a little bit to work on over the international break. The shape of the team is relatively good and we all know our jobs.

“But it’s just cutting out those individual mistakes. Football would be boring if nobody made a mistake, that’s the game. You try to keep the mistakes to a minimum and I think we have enough in the dressing room to finish top six in the table.”

Foster hasn’t made his name as a goal-scoring full-back but he hopes that Saturday’s strike doesn’t turn out to be a flash in the pan.

“I very rarely get on the scoresheet,” he said. “My little boy was at the game to see it too, so that was pleasing. If I can add a little going forward then hopefully we will win more games than lose.

“It’s probably not the best of my career. I’ve scored a couple of decent ones. But I don’t get many and I think that is my first in a good few years.

“Getting forward is part of the game which I enjoy. I try to put as many crosses into the box as I can. After getting ourselves back into the game away from home, we thought we were going to take a point.

“It was nice for me, especially to score at the point in the game. But now all I’ve done is scored a goal and it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s gone now. We have a long wait with the international break so that game is probably going to fester in the mind for a week or so.”

Richard Foster is all smiles after his goal in Inverness.