Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Homework pays off for Saints boss at Tynecastle
ST JOHNSTONE manager Tommy Wright was rewarded for doing his homework on his counterpart, Daniel Stendel, as Saints recorded a first away win in the league in 2019 by beating Hearts 1-0.
Wright said: “We knew how they were going to play.
“Stendel was previously i n charge of Barnsley and I watched some Barnsley games.
“It was documented how they were going to play and we worked on trying to deal with that, in behind them as early as possible if they are going to press you as high up the pitch.
“We probably didn’t do it well enough in the first half even though Michael O’Halloran should score.
“In the second half, the game opened up a bit more and we got more opportunities.”
Substitute Callum Hendry netted Saints’ goal and Wright added:
“Callum has a habit now of nicking goals.
“He probably should have scored the one which led to the corner but he made up for it. It was great movement.
“Again, we knew they were going to be zonal and, sometimes when you are zonal, there is space to go and attack.”
Stendel admitted his side had failed to grasp the new tactic.
“We changed to zonal marking but at this moment we are not concentrated enough,” he said.
“It was too easy. We will talk about this in the coming days but we need to defend better at set-pieces.
“We have a lot of work to do. We all expected more.
“The players want to play better but the feeling is it’s very difficult to change it, especially the composure to play and create chances in the final third.”