Blair looking to bounce back against Dee
ST Johnstone midfielder Blair Alston now feels comfortable in the top flight.
The 24-year-old left Falkirk in the summer after the Bairns missed out on promotion in the playoffs with Kilmarnock.
Alston admits he has had to adapt his game to secure a place in manager Tommy Wright’s line-up.
The Perth player, who is looking to bounce back in today’s lunchtime kickoff against Tayside neighbours Dundee after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat from Killie, has been on a steep learning curve, despite clocking-up nearly 200 appearances for the Bairns.
There’s stiff competition for starting places in the McDiarmid midfield and he admitted: “At the start I found it harder than I thought I would. But now I know everyone and how they want to play, I’m settling quite well.
“At no point did I think I’d come in and just play every week. I didn’t think I started as well as I knew I could. I’m not going to say I’m going to play every week now but I know where I need to be and what I need to do to make sure I’m in the team more often than not.
“The tempo is a lot harder and you’re playing against players who’ve played at this level an awful lot longer than I have.
“It’s always going to be a step up to this level but it’s something I always wanted to do. It was going to take a bit of time to settle but I’m getting used to it. And I’m enjoying it.
“It feels a little like starting from scratch. It’s totally different. But playing so many games at Falkirk has helped me massively. I’ve played against really good players before, just not quite as regularly.
“I certainly feel like I’m capable at this level. It’s now about standing my ground and saying I deserve to be here.”
Alston forged a reputation for creativity and now wants to add goals to his game.
He’s had to tailor his game to provide defensive cover but he’s eager to get off the mark for Saints.
“It’s now about having more belief in myself to say I am good enough to play here and go and create opportunities, maybe score goals and set them up.”
Alston admits Saints are licking their wounds after losing to Killie.
“Last week was disappointing. We had such a decent start to the season and had a good away win at Ross County the week before. It was probably a bit of a shock to us to lose the game.”
TOM HATELEY insists Dundee aren’t wallowing in self-pity.
He knows if they did so, that would lead to them staying bottom of the Scottish Premiership permanently.
The Dark Blues hope to climb clear of the foot of the table in today’s televised league clash with Tayside rivals St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, after last weekend’s 2-0 defeat away to Hearts left them propping up the rest of the pile.
Paul Hartley’s side haven’t won in the league since their impressive 3-1 victory at Ross County away back on August 6.
But Hateley, who joined them last month, maintains the Tayside club aren’t going into their shells in the slightest.
He said: “It’s easy to start feeling sorry for yourself when things aren’t going your way.
“Nobody here is being like that. You can’t because you could find yourself starting to get further astray.
“The changing-room is good, we’re working hard and everyone is positive.
“You need a wee bit of luck to change things, and right now we’d take a scrappy 1-0 win to get us back to picking up three points again.
“But I am 100% confident we will turn things around.
“We have gone from creating no chances to creating a few, so things are moving forward.
“Obviously you are judged on results. We know that. But I am totally confident things are going to start moving forward for us. “
Hateley joined Dundee in September following a spell with Polish outfit, Slask Wroclaw, and wasn’t expecting to be occupying the relegation zone.
But the former Motherwell man has experienced life at the wrong end of the table before, and is convinced his current team will survive these testing times.
Hateley said: “I have been through it before in Poland, and in the end we had enough quality to come through it. “I think we’re the same here. “Sometimes you have to slightly change the way you play. We try to play the right way at Dundee, but maybe you need to tweak it sometimes.
“It might be a case of putting the ball into areas and pushing high up the pitch.
“We have worked a lot on our shape and being solid, then taking things from there.
“Quite possibly we could copy the example of Hearts, who beat us last week.
“We’ll take a goal from anywhere.
“We had some good chances at Tynecastle, but their goals were a cross and a header, and then at the end a simple pass down the line followed by a cut-back.
“That’s the kind of stuff they work on in training and obviously they’re then taking it onto the pitch, where it matters.”
Dundee struck the woodwork four times against the Jambos in their last outing.
But Hateley is sure they’ll acquire a ruthless touch in front of goal in the coming weeks.
He said: “There are goals in this team. I have no doubt about that.
“There has to be goals because you need to score to win matches.
“We have the players to score goals, up front and in midfield as well.
“It’s about finding the right formula to break the run we’re in.
“We have been doing finishing in training, but when it’s little things like the width of a post, you just have to keep at it.
“We have been trying to make sure we work the keeper. If we keep creating things, it will all fall into place for us.”