ONLY OURSELVES TO BLAME, INSISTS MACKAY

ST JOHNSTONE boss Tommy Wright went on the attack on Saturday, accusing referee Kevin Clancy (pictured) of unfairly ruling out a Steven MacLean goal and failing to spot a tug on Brian Easton’s shirt in the penalty box. But fit-again Perth captain Dave Mackay admitted his backline had been the true architects of their own downfall through poor defending. The third most miserly defence in the top flight last season behind Celtic and Aberdeen — conceding 34 in 38 games — Wright’s men have now lost eight goals in their first four matches of the new season. Yet while Saints continue to miss injured centre-halves Steven Anderson and Frazer Wright, Mackay has been heartened by the increased goal threat of a team that last season only scored a measly 34 goals. ‘I think we were hard done by in terms of decisions but you can’t blame the referee for us giving away two cheap goals,’ said Mackay. ‘It is frustrating. We seem to be making silly individual errors and we are getting punished for them. ‘But we are working hard to change things and I am sure it will turn, hopefully next week against Motherwell. The pleasing thing is we are scoring goals and we look like scoring goals. Last season that was a big problem. ‘If you look at the table, there are a lot of teams on two, three and four points. So, a couple of wins and you climb that table and everything looks brighter.’ St Johnstone bid farewell yesterday to veteran Steve Banks, who has joined Blackpool as goalkeeping coach. But they are boosted by Mackay coming through his first match since ending last season early on May 9 to go under the knife for an important hip operation. ‘I feel fine,’ he said. ‘It takes time to get your bearings again but I felt stronger the longer the game went on. I’m just glad to be back involved. ‘But I’ve been roped into a golf day with the fans on Sunday and I may need a buggy to get round!’