Clark: Saints showed great character to salvage draw

WHAT a difference a week makes. Last week’s bottle of red didn’t just drown the sorrows of St Johnstone keeper Zander Clark but helped ease the backache after an afternoon of picking the ball out of his net at Celtic Park. This weekend Clark was able to raise a celebratory glass to toast St Johnstone’s first league point of the season after his last-gasp penalty save ensured Tommy Wright’s side hung on for a share of the spoils.

The Perthshire side came from two goals down at the break to finish up on level terms but had Clark not denied Livingston striker Lyndon Dykes from the spot it would have been another afternoon

of recrimination at McDiarmid Park.

“Listen, a bottle of red wine always helps everything,” joked Clark, who signed a two-year contract extension with the club last week. “I’ll take every penalty save, more so with these new rules. It’s feels like a mannequin standing in the box – you’re not allowed to do anything. I’m glad I saved it and we were able to take something from the game.

“It’s always great to celebrate a new deal. It would have been better if we had got the win. But

last season I don’t think there was a time when we came back from a single goal down to get a point or three points. To come from two down shows great character from the boys after last week.

“A lot of folk would have seen the 2-0 score at half-time – ‘here they go again’. But we had a regroup and knew we had to tidy things up. We came out in the second half and got a bit of luck when Mikey [O’Halloran] capitalised on the short back pass. That was the spark we needed.”

Second-half goals from Matty Kennedy and Callum Hendry cancelled

out Livingston’s first-half lead that had been established by Scott Pittman and Stevie Lawless. And while Wright enthused after the game about the character within his side that they were able to claw back the deficit, he was right too to point out the very obvious deficiencies that are still apparent in his team.

With another few weeks remaining to bring players in, there is a genuine need for experience if St Johnstone are to build on the point they manage to fight for at the weekend.

“We’ve been linked with strikers and if we could get one or two in it would be great,” Clark added. “I’m sure the manager and chairman will have a plan.”