McMillan praised for tackling surprise role

Wright pleased with ‘great job’ Irishman did behind lone striker

Tommy Wright has praised David McMillan for the “great job” he did in Saturday’s Tayside derby victory.

It was the Irishman’s first league start of the season.

Wright deployed him just behind lone striker Tony Watt in a Steven MacLeantype role and the former Dundalk man showed there is more to him than just being a penalty box predator.

“I thought David was excellent on Saturday,” he said.

“I think a few people were surprised with where he played but Steven MacLean did that job for me for years.

“I thought he dropped off well when we didn’t have the ball and after about 15 minutes you could really see him getting into the game.

“He’s an intelligent guy and an intelligent footballer so he has that tactical awareness.

“And even though we asked him to play a bit deeper and sit on their deeplying midfielder, he still had chances to score himself.

“He did a great job and set up Tony’s goal.

“The focus has gone on his finish, and rightly so because it was excellent, but the quality of David’s through ball shouldn’t be overlooked.”

Wright was very happy with McMillan’s display against Dundee and the same can be said of all his players.

“I felt we had a really good all-round team performance at the weekend,” he said.

“People can point to Dundee having more possession than us but there’s no doubt we carried more of a threat.”

Picture: SNS. David McMillan: Took on the role filled by Steven MacLean for many years at Saints.