GOAL MIGHT STOP STICK FROM BOSS
ALI McCANN hopes his Boxing Day winner against Hamilton will help get boss Tommy Wright off his back.
The St Johnstone midfielder netted his first goal for the club to help make it four games without defeat.
But the 20-year-old admits it’s been a long time coming and he’s determined to make a habit of hitting the back of the net.
McCann said: “I was delighted to get my first goal. Callum Hendry put it on a plate for me.
“I made the run into the box and it was just about making sure that I got decent contact on it. Thankfully I did.
“It was great to score it in front of our fans and even better that we held on for the win.
“The manager has been nagging at me for a while about that side of my game. Hopefully now I’ve got one I’ll go on to get a few more.”
McCann is becoming a fixture in the Saints side this season and he believes a loan spell at Stranraer last term has helped to accelerate his progress
BY GORDON PARKS in Perth. McCann added: “It’s been a really good year for me on loan at Stranraer and then back here for the first half of this season. I’ve loved every minute of it.
“But I still don’t look on myself as being established in the team.
“The manager picks a new team for every game and if I’m in it I try to take my opportunity.
“It has been welldocumented our start to the season wasn’t great.
“But we’ve made ourselves solid at the back and that’s now four clean sheets in a row.
“We’re on an unbeaten run of four games. If we get another win on Sunday against Ross County then we can start looking up rather than down.
“We can’t take our foot off the gas. You can see how quickly we’ve moved off the bottom by a few points so other teams could do the same.
“The manager has always been positive even when results haven’t been going our way.
“He was confident that we would eventually start getting the clean sheets and results.”