The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Saints want to prove their critics wrong
Captain says win over Hearts can turn their season around
There are four teams below them in the Premiership table and they are as close to the top six as they are the relegation position.
And there is no denying that whispers about St Johnstone being a team on the slide are growing louder.
Second half performances like the one at Motherwell in midweek and statistics like goals scored (lowest in the league) and home points accrued (12) don’t give much encouragement.
Bar the odd poor run of results that never lasted too long, captain Joe Shaughnessy has known nothing but good times with Saints since he arrived from Aberdeen. But he has also known that writing the team off and talking down their achievements has also been popular outside of Perthshire.
Looking to prove people wrong has served them well in the Tommy Wright years and Shaughnessy is hoping it will do so again as they seek to turn their season around in the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle this afternoon.
“We have been written off in the past and have always proved people wrong,” said the Irishman. “So we have to do it again.
“Even when we are doing well we don’t get carried away and we won’t go the other way now.
“We have never been a pretty team to watch, we are a team who are used to scrapping for points so we know we have the fight in us.
“This is a big test of character, definitely. The last few months have been the toughest period I have had since I came to the club.
“We have always been winning games in the past and even when we’ve had a sticky patch we have come out of it fairly quickly.
“So it is a big test for us but I am confident we have the players here to turn it around. The lads are able to cope.
“I don’t know if there is added responsibility on me (as skipper). We have a squad of players who all take responsibility.
“It’s about sticking together and getting out of the situation we are in.”
A team that can win at Ibrox shouldn’t be a team looking over their shoulder and Shaughnessy doesn’t believe the fix is a complicated one.
He said: “It hasn’t been a great season but I don’t think we are far away, we’ve just had a bad mix.
“We have been making mistakes we haven’t made in previous years and we are not scoring enough goals.
“When you’re not scoring it does put pressure on everyone because one mistake at the back and you can lose a game.
“That’s what happened against Hearts last weekend. The performance was very good but we didn’t make it count when it mattered.
“That game maybe summed up our season. We played well even with 10 men but couldn’t put the game to bed.
“It’s a case of putting a performance together for 90 minutes and taking our opportunities when they come along.
“But everyone has to take responsibility for that. We have to keep more clean sheets at the back.
“If we do that then you don’t lose games and it gives you a platform.”
Saints are the lowest scorers in the Premiership and the team take responsibility for changing that as a whole, rather than putting all the pressure on the forwards.
“In the past we spread the goals around but it hasn’t been happening as much this year,” said Shaughnessy.
“But Chris Kane has come back and looked very good. We have David McMillan waiting to come back from injury and you would always back Steven MacLean and David Wotherspoon to score goals.
“Scoring goals is the responsibility of everyone, not just the strikers.
“So we know it’s there in the team, it’s just about things clicking for us and it will change.”
Shaughnessy added: “It’s the cup this weekend so we are looking forward to going back to Tynecastle.
“We want to get the second half performance at Motherwell out of our system and put a performance in.
“If we can win then we give ourselves that platform to get back on track in the league.”
David Wotherspoon returns from suspension but Stefan Scougall, Liam Craig, Brian Easton, David McMillan and Callum Hendry are out. George Williams has arrived from Fulham but won’t feature today.