Wright’s rallying call to his players after loss at Killie

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright has challenged his current crop of players to stand up and be counted.

The Perth boss confirmed no new midfielder will be arriving at the club imminently and is urging his squad to prove their worth.

Wright was speaking in the aftermath of Saturday’s league opener against Kilmarnock where Saints slumped to a 2-0 defeat in Ayrshire.

“At the minute, we won’t be bringing a new midfielder in,” Wright said.

“We have to get players out first for it to happen but we can’t really do that because the squad is thin in numbers.

“So it’s a balancing act, we will have to manage the numbers game properly. For someone to come in, we need people to go out.

“So as it stands, I can’t see anything happening with a midfielder in the short-term.

“But the good thing is we have another few weeks in the window.

“The players who are here have to step up, I don’t think we will be as bad in possession of the ball this Sunday as we were last weekend.

“We put Jason Kerr into midfield and I thought he did as well as anyone. He came off because he got tired because it’s a new role for him.

“Jason could play as a holding midfielder in a three, I’m confident of that.

“He started his career as a midfielder when he was younger, but he’s more comfortable at centre-back these days.

“If we don’t get a midfielder in then that could be an option.” Wright admits his side’s second half performance at Rugby Park was not good enough. He went on: “I have watched the game back and my feelings are still the same. “You can lose games, we know that, but it’s how you lose them and certainly the second half on Saturday wasn’t good enough. “There was a catalogue of mistakes — I counted seven — before their goal, so that has to stop. “We have to improve, we can’t have people making errors like we did on Saturday.

“The consequences of not improving is you won’t be in the team, simple as that.

“We didn’t keep the ball well enough, with the players we’ve got we can’t go long all the time and bypass midfield. I felt we did that too often.”

There is positive news on the injury front and captain Joe Shaughnessy is in contention to make a return for this weekend’s Hibernian game.

“Brian Easton and Joe will come back into full training this week, so that’s a positive step,” Wright said.

“And we will have Richard Foster back from suspension for the weekend as well.

“Easty is feeling really good, he’s making good progress.

“He trained last week for a couple of days but we can’t get too excited because of the type of injury he’s had.

“I’m not saying there is light at the

end of the tunnel yet, but at least he’s in the tunnel.

“Once he’s back training regularly again it’s going to take him at least a month to get properly fit because he’s been out for so long.

“As for Joe, if he trains well this week then he will be in contention for Sunday.”

Meanwhile, Wright believes Saints have played a part in prolonging the career of former striker Steven MacLean. The experienced forward was not allowed to play on plastic pitches during his time in Perth in order to protect his knee.

But he has been thrown into action on all surfaces in the early part of the season with new team Hearts.

“The reason Macca didn’t play on plastic pitches here was because of me,” said Wright. “I got medical advice and made my decision because he was my main striker.

“Macca has got to 35 and is still playing in the Premiership. I’d like to think some of that is down to the way we dealt with him.

“He got plenty of Mondays off, for example, and we protected him as much as we could because he was such an important player for us.

“Macca always wanted to play on plastic pitches, he was always on at me to let him do it. But I decided it wasn’t happening.

“I decided what was best for St Johnstone was for him not to play on plastic and I don’t regret that one bit.

“Macca did okay in his time with us, didn’t he? So I’m more than comfortable with the decisions I made.”