The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Wright refuses to get carried away by league table
Saints move into fourth after derby win
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright likes what he sees when he looks at the Premiership table but isn’t getting carried away just yet.
Saints have jumped over Rangers into fourth spot in the table – just behind Hearts on goal difference – and can put more clear blue water between themselves and the Ibrox men with a win in Govan on Wednesday night.
Wright’s men grabbed a deserved 2-1 victory over struggling Dundee at McDiarmid Park yesterday, taking the lead through Steven Anderson on 62 minutes and then a Danny Swanson penalty, with sub Rory Loy getting one back for Dundee late on from the spot.
The Perth gaffer admitted that it all adds up to a fine opening few months for the normally slow-starting Saints but he isn’t getting too excited.
Wright said: “The table looks good but I don’t see any prizes being given out at this stage.
“So we will not get complacent. What we have done is made a very good start to the first batch of games when, generally, we tend to be slower starters.
“So that’s good but we have to keep working and doing the things that have gotten us where we are. We won’t get carried away.
“We know we are in a good position but in a 12-team league it can change very quickly.
“Therefore, we will enjoy today and look forward to Wednesday’s game.”
Wright was happy with the overall display of his players, with midfielder Danny Swanson the stand-out performer.
The Saints boss said: “The performance was excellent. For 90 minutes we were always on the front foot, although they had a great chance to make it 1-0.
“Overall, it was fully deserved. It was a great performance from Danny and a great team performance.
“When you pass the ball well and get yourselves up the pitch and get him (Swanson) on the ball in good areas up the pitch then he causes problems, and he did that.”
Wright joked that had Saints allowed themselves to be pegged back by Dundee in the dying minutes then it would have been criminal.
He was particularly annoyed by scorer Anderson giving away a penalty two minutes from time by shoving Yordi Teijsse in the back.
Wright said: “I reckon it would have been a travesty if they had scored again and I might have been up for murder if they had equalised.
“It was crazy and I don’t know what Ando was doing. He was getting a bit of a ribbing in the dressing room.
“It was a silly thing to do and we caused ourselves a nervy two or three minutes when we shouldn’t have done.”