The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)

Wright refuses to apologise after supporter bust-up

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Tommy Wright has refused to apologise to a St Johnstone supporter after the pair exchanged words during the 6-0 loss to Celtic yesterday.

The Saints boss was suffering as much as any fan as his team fell to the heaviest defeat of his managerial reign. They were 5-0 down at the break and it was six by fulltime.

So he did not take too kindly when some verbals came his way and felt he was within his rights to fire back.

Wright said: “I am not apologisin­g for it. If he wants to have a go then I’m prepared to have a go back.

“I think I’ve done enough here and the players have done enough. I always thought the definition of supporter is to support the team and get behind the team, not shout drunken comments.

“Listen, I’m not apologisin­g. Not a chance.”

The goals rained down on Saints yesterday, with James Forrest grabbing four for himself, and Odsonne Edouard and Callum McGregor also on target.

Celtic actually showed some mercy by easing off in the second half.

Wright added: “Believe it or not, we started the game OK.

“Then we just kept giving the ball away and didn’t make a tackle. We couldn’t cope with Forrest and were totally torn apart. The biggest disappoint­ment is that a lot of the time we gave the ball away when we shouldn’t have done.

“Celtic countered on us with pace, power and ruthlessne­ss.

“In the second half, to be fair to them (the Saints players), we knuckled down in the second half and made sure it didn’t reach double figures, which it could have done.”

The hosts played nearly all of the second period with 10 men after Danny Swanson was shown a straight red for a foul on Forrest.

Wright added: “It’s the wrong type of passion but it was the only bit of passion we had shown up until that stage.

“In fact, the only tackle we made was when Steven Anderson came on.

“Danny is wrong and has apologised. At half-time, he was a bit annoyed and I think he’s taken that on to the pitch. It was the wrong thing to do and he knows that.”

Forrest admits scoring four goals was the best domestic antidote to European pain.

The winger was sent off in the 3-1 Europa League defeat by Salzburg but made amends with a sparkling display.

He said: “I have been thinking the last couple of days that there is nothing better than a game to come so quick that you can try to get over it.

“There is nothing better today than helping the boys out. It was the first time I scored four goals for Celtic.

“The manager has been wanting us to be more clinical and ruthless in front of goal and we couldn’t have been much better.”

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