Wotherspoon at the double and
DAVID WOTHERSPOON marked his 250th appearance for St Johnstone with a priceless double to set Saints up for their first Premiership victory of the season.
But it still took a late strike by super-sub Callum Hendry to secure all three points after Hamilton had threatened to give Tommy Wright yet another miserable weekend.
Hendry had not even been on the pitch five minutes when he struck to finish off Matty Kennedy’s cross from close range with two minutes remaining.
It is the third time this season that the 21-year-old has come off the bench and scored, but he will net few more important goals than this one.
For while Saints remain bottom, they are now only a point adrift of the trio of Hearts, St Mirren and Hibs and will derive a huge psychological boost from this result.
But, after four draws and five defeats, St Johnstone’s propensity for shooting themselves in the foot at both ends of the pitch again very nearly cost them.
Not only did they maintain their remarkable record of going behind in every one of their 10 Premiership matches this seasons, Murray Davidson also conceded a penalty for handball to give Hamilton a way back into the match.
Mickel Miller must also have been taken aback at the ease with which he was able to score the opener after 25 minutes.
Having gathered Scott McMann’s through pass, Miller bore down on Zander Clark before finishing from close range despite Scott Tanser snapping at his heels.
It was not hard to imagine what was going on in the heads of the St Johnstone players at that moment.
Their mindset was not helped either by the fact that Stevie May had earlier failed to connect with Wotherspoon’s cross when the goal was at his mercy, while Davidson had struck