Three point turn puts us back on right road, says Wotherspoon
MAKE no mistake, the bounce that Callum Hendry’s late winner provided for St Johnstone will have reverberated all the way to Tynecastle and beyond.
For this result may not only have turned the Perth team’s season around, it will also have put the wind up Craig Levein’s faltering Hearts ahead of Wednesday’s now-seismic encounter between the teams at McDiarmid Park.
Yes, Saints remain bottom of the table after what was their first league victory of the season.
Should they leapfrog the Gorgie side with a second win on the trot, however, the spotlight will swivel away from Tommy Wright and burn even more intensely over the head of Hearts boss Levein.
The key factor here was the way Wright’s men didn’t panic after going behind to an Accies side more used to battling away in the drop zone.
Having conceded the first goal in every one of their previous nine Premiership fixtures this season, it appeared that fate had once again conspired against the Saints when Mickel Miller scored midway through the first half.
Step forward midfielder David Wotherspoon on his 250th appearance for the club with two goals — one just before half-time, the second on the hour mark — to put the home side in front.
Steve Davies’ 83rd-minute goal from the penalty spot restored parity for Hamilton, but a newfound resolve in the Perth ranks saw Hendry step from the bench to convert Matt Kennedy’s cross from close range with two minutes left.
An elusive win gained at last, Wotherspoon said it was up to experienced players like himself to show this was no flash in the pan.
The 29-yearold Canadian international said: ‘I didn’t realise it was my 250th game until afterwards, and it has to be up there with my best performances for the club.
‘I felt like I played well and I’m delighted with the milestone. Two goals was a good way to celebrate the occasion, but I should have had a hat-trick to put us 3-1 up.
‘But the main thing was getting the three points for the team. We keep conceding goals and that’s not good, but we showed our character to keep going right to the end and win the game.
‘When we conceded the first goal, we did not let our heads go down. We kept pushing and even when they equalised late on, all we were thinking about was getting the ball back and going again.
‘It’s a massive win, the confidencebuilder we needed to push on and start winning more games because we know we have a quality team capable of pushing up the table.
‘Our performance showed the quality we’ve got and, with the chances we created, we should have been well out of sight. That’s been the story of our season but Callum took his chance brilliantly and that is what mattered, getting the three points.’ Hopefully, this result will also put a stop to the ridiculous notion that St Johnstone would benefit from a change of manager. Wright hasn’t suddenly lost his touch after becoming the most successful boss in the club’s history following a Scottish Cup triumph in 2014 and a succession of top-six finishes. Neither has he lost his eye for a player, if teenage midfielder Ali McCann is anything to go by. But for the time being at least, St Johnstone will focus on the short-term benefits of this result after coming from behind to close to within a single point of Hearts, St Mirren and Hibs. Murray Davidson was perhaps a shade unfortunate to concede the late penalty when he handled the ball after it bounced awkwardly.
But the award was correct all the same, and substitute Davies sent Zander Clark the wrong way to square matters.
St Johnstone enjoyed a rub of the green for a change when Hendry was sent on in place of Drey Wright and scored, the third time he has done so this season after coming off the bench.
In truth, the home side should have been home and hosed a good while earlier but they wasted several chances in addition to twice knocking on wood.
As for 19-year-old McCann, he was a deserved man of the match. He reads the game superbly and his anticipatory skills are remarkable for one so young.
A great day for Saints, then, but not so for Accies. Manager Brian Rice accused his players of sloppy defending and failing to display the wherewithal to see out the match after getting it back to 2-2.
Judging by goalscorer Miller’s glum expression afterwards, Rice didn’t miss his players with his post-match assessment.
The Englishman said: ‘At 2-2, we should have shown some brains to stay compact to get a draw.
‘We let the manager down but we’ll learn from our failure to take something from the game.
‘The manager has said we can’t dwell on it and, with another tough game against Aberdeen in midweek, we need to get our minds back on the job and not feel sorry for ourselves.’