Shaughnessy hopes Perth men can get back on track
JOE SHAUGHNESSY’S streak of 109 consecutive appearances for St Johnstone came to a screeching halt in agonising fashion when his summer fitness routine went sorely wrong.
The Saints captain careered violently off his cycling route in his native Galway, suffering a gory knee injury that ruled him out of all the Betfred Cup group games.
He admits the pain of the accident was almost as bad as the fear of informing manager Tommy Wright that he wouldn’t be returning for pre-season in peak condition.
Yesterday, Saints went down 2-0 against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park as Shaughnessy is nursed back to full fitness.
‘I cycle when I go back home because you can go out in the country and there are hardly any cars,’ said Shaughnessy. ‘But I turned a corner where a road had recently been re-laid.
‘There was some gravel at the side of the road. The bike just skidded when it hit the gravel bit. The wheel skidded and I fell off, ripping my leg open just below my knee. It was a pretty deep cut.
‘I looked down and thought: “That’s trouble”. So I had to go to hospital and get it treated. It was only a few days before I was due back at St Johnstone.
‘The manager wasn’t too impressed and he maybe thought I’d done it when I was out having a few drinks.
‘But I did it cycling and what can you say? It’s just one of those things. I actually phoned the physio to tell him first and he told the manager.
‘I had to let it heal and stay away from the training pitch. I only missed a few weeks and I’m back in the swing of things now.’ St Johnstone veered off their customary Premiership path in 2017/18 as years of high finishes came to an end. A year of transition resulted in a bottom-six berth for a squad and manager that still proved able to scheme a shock against the giants of the division — two draws at Celtic and an Ibrox victory. Stalwarts like Chris Millar, Steven MacLean and Alan Mannus have moved on and skipper Shaughnessy (left) can count himself one of the more experienced members of a tight group.
‘The season was a disappointment, so I think we need to aim to be back up there,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘We’ve made a few good signings and, if we keep everyone fit, I think we have the players to do it.
‘Last year, we conceded 53 goals and a lot of them were avoidable. We also went through spells of not scoring very many. So it wasn’t a good mix. Our record against top teams was good, but we weren’t winning the tight games against the teams around us.
‘That was the big difference from previous seasons. I don’t know why that is but we just need to be more consistent and stop giving away sloppy goals.
‘For a club of our size, staying in the league is the first priority but then you think about my first two seasons, where we finished fourth and played in Europe.
‘Maybe we took that for granted a bit. Losing the three older, more experienced guys was always going to happen at some point but it does feel like a changing of the guard.’