The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Wotherspoon: Saints desperate to shrug off Euro false start
Wotherspoon brace helps down Sunderland as St Johnstone shrug off Trakai disappointment
David Wotherspoon insists St Johnstone are itching for the Premiership kick-off after shrugging off their Euro false start.
Having slipped tamely out of the Europa League against Lithuanians Trakai, Wotherspoon’s brilliant brace helped Saints restore any flagging confidence with a well-deserved win over Sunderland on Saturday.
The Perth outfit made light work of their visitors, who only weeks ago were rubbing shoulders with the cream of the English Premier League and will be among the favourites for the Championship title after relegation from the top flight.
For his second goal, Wotherspoon left Black Cats keeper Vito Mannone floundering and the net wide open thanks to a wonderful piece of trickery.
With Steven MacLean having fired in the 19th-minute opener and some notable absentees, such as Liam Craig, Blair Alston, Chris Kane and Alan Mannus, Wotherspoon reckons Tommy Wright’s men are primed and ready for the domestic action to start.
The 27-year-old said: “It was great for the boys to have an opportunity to play against a team like Sunderland, and it was a good pre-season game.
“Everyone’s still going on about how we got put out of Europe but, to be honest, we did so well to get there in the first place.
“It was a bonus for us and we were just unfortunate. I think the games maybe came a week early. But we move on, and the boys are ready for the season already.
“Our start to the season won’t be the same as everyone else’s. We’ve been back a couple of weeks early and played a couple of competitive games.
“We’ll see how things go. The boys are just wanting to get started now because we’ve been back for so long. “It feels like we just want to get going.” Zander Clark, taken to hospital after a head knock (see story on opposite page) saved an early penalty from Sunderland new boy James Vaughan before Saints floored the Black Cats with three goals in six minutes.
MacLean drilled through a wall of bodies on the line from an indirect freekick after Mannone was penalised for handling a back pass as it squirmed beyond him and towards goal.
Intricate play from MacLean, Stefan Scougall and Murray Davidson set up Wotherspoon, who cut inside his marker to fire in a well-worked second.
His own second was even better as he played a one-two with Scougall to run through on Mannone.
Shifting the ball quickly from right boot to left he bamboozled the Sunderland keeper to casually tap in.
He added: “The second one was a wee bit cheeky. The boys and the manager know that I do that drag every now and then. Sometimes the manager tells me to stop it, but he didn’t say anything about it on Saturday.”
Manager Tommy Wright took the chance to run the rule over trialist Romain Habran after the arrival of the ex-PSG striker last week.
The 23-year-old came on for the last 15 minutes and hinted at the qualities that earned him five caps for the France under-20s side.
Wright took Habran on trial thanks to a recommendation from French former Manchester City and Newcastle United midfielder Antoine Sibierski, and is expected to have another look at him in tomorrow’s closed-door game against Rangers and on Saturday against Hartlepool United.
Wright said: “We hadn’t planned to play him on Saturday, because he’s only really had two days training on the grass.
“But we thought we would just put him on the bench and see how the game went and give him 15 minutes.
“You can see he is quick and he’s got really good attitude; he works extremely hard and has good movement.
“He’ll get more game-time in the next two games and then we’ll make a decision.”
“Everyone’s still going on about how we got put out of Europe but we did so well to get there in the first place. DAVID WOTHERSPOON