WRIGHT HAS NO WORRIES ABOUT TONY MISSING OUT

ST JOHNSTONE manager Tommy Wright reckoned his team could easily have scored five or six goals against struggling St Mirren.

Despite being guilty of the miss of the season and also having a second-half penalty saved, Perth striker Tony Watt was spared a verbal blast from his gaffer.

Wright (below) said: ‘It wasn’t Tony’s day and he has just said he won’t be watching the match on TV. I told him that I had a bad time once — in 1988!

‘But he will have better days. He is a striker and he will miss chances. We put him on penalties, but the way his day was going I was tempted to shout out to get Liam (Craig) to take it. I don’t know if that would have made any difference, though.

‘Tony was probably thinking about his header in the first half. It was an incredible save (by Craig Samson). He did everything right there and you can miss a penalty. He is playing well for us and the goals will come.’

Wright also praised his players show of character to bounce back from two heavy defeats by Celtic and Rangers.

And he expressed amazement that referee Andrew Dallas didn’t send off Matty Willock for what he described as his ‘assault’ on Murray Davidson.

He added: ‘I know Matty and it was a bad challenge. But I was really pleased that Murray was able to get up and continue.

‘I think the medical team were indicating that we might have to take him off, but I heard him saying he was fine. If Murray says that, then you let him stay on.’

St Mirren boss Oran Kearney was adamant that his side should have had a first-half penalty for Davidson’s challenge on Danny Mullen.

He said: ‘By all accounts, the penalty in the first half was absolutely nailed on.

‘Some of the St Johnstone players came in at half-time laughing — not in jest, but disbelief — that it wasn’t given.

‘The body language of the St Johnstone players who were around there at the time also told me it was a penalty.

‘But those are the kind of things that go against you when you are down there where we are and those incidents take on so much more importance.

‘There is a huge amount of disappointment we couldn’t get back into the game.

‘But our lack of reaction on the final 15 minutes was disappointing.’