WE MUST GET BACK TO BEING HORRIBLE
Craig wants nasty Saints on pitch
LIAM CRAIG says St Johnstone must get back to being the “horrible” side nobody wants to play as they bid to stave off a fifth successive defeat.
A midweek loss to Kilmarnock has all but closed the door on their top-six hopes.
And midfielder Craig said: “We have to get back to being that nasty, horrible team nobody likes to play against.
“I don’t feel we’ve been as hard to beat as we have in the past and that’s massively disappointing.
“The squad has changed a bit in the last year or two and right now we have a load of experienced players out injured.
“This season we have introduced a lot of younger players so it’s up to the senior ones to show them the other side of the game.
“They are all good footballers but sometimes you need to dig in and fight, that’s what this club has been successful at.
“But that’s down to the senior boys dragging them along with us. We have to lead by example. We have to battle to get that platform to go and play.”
Craig admits it’s high time the strikers got a helping hand.
He said: “The top six is probably going to be too much of an ask.
“People are talking about the slide we’re on but we’ve proved people wrong for years at this club.
“If we can go to Dens and get a result it will give us a good boost going into the next few weeks.
“Our record there hasn’t been great in the last few years and that’s something we have to improve on.
“We always take a good crowd but haven’t given them much too much to cheer about there recently.
“When I first came here we had a good record. But in the last couple of seasons we have struggled at Dens. We need to start scoring more goals. That’s a massive thing for us because we haven’t hit the net nearly enough.
“In the past we’ve had players such as Stevie May, Fran Sandaza, Mikey O’Halloran and Danny Swanson who got 15 to 20 goals in a season.
“But in the years we didn’t have someone like that we were able to spread the goals around.
“That makes a massive difference and I have to look at myself in that because I haven’t scored from open play this year.
“My game has been built on getting goals whether it’s six or eight a season but I haven’t done it this year. It’s not just down to the strikers we all need to chip in.
“We’ve only scored two goals from set-pieces this season, which is incredible considering how well we used to do with them, so we need to turn it around.”
Saints lost 2-0 in Perth and suffered a 3-2 defeat at Dens when Steven Anderson had a goal chalked off and Richard Foster conceded a controversial spot-kick.
But Craig added: “It’s in the past. There’s nothing we can do about it, all we can influence is this weekend.”
We’ve proved people wrong for years LIAM CRAIG