WRIGHT HOPING TO CORRECT WRONGS OF 2022

DREY WRIGHT has called on St Johnstone to make 2023 a great year for the club after the McDiarmid Park side narrowly avoided relegation in 2022. Callum Davidson’s men finished 11th in the Premiership last season and secured their survival by beating Inverness Caley Thistle in a two-legged play-off final. Despite ending the year with a narrow 3-2 home loss to Hearts last Wednesday, the Perth side are currently riding high in the top six. And Wright wants them to make today the start of a happy new year by beating 11th-placed Dundee United in the Tayside derby in Perth. He said: ‘We can make this a really big year for the club. ‘I wasn’t at St Johnstone last season but it wasn’t great. It will never be a nice environment to be in if you’re struggling at the wrong end of the table. But we have got a good points total on the board and we are determined to keep that going, starting against Dundee United. St Johnstone are definitely a club looking up the way.’ Wright (pictured) left St Johnstone in 2020 for two years at Hibernian but the versatile wide man never really clicked at Easter Road. He feels he is now getting back to the form he showed during his first spell in Perth before he suffered a nasty anterior cruciate ligament injury. ‘I was getting back to that level just before football was shut down for Covid,’ he said. ‘After that, I didn’t get consistent football (at Hibs). ‘But since coming back to St Johnstone I’ve been getting regular football and that’s something I’ve been crying out for, for such a long time. ‘I knew I could show people what I could do if I got the chance. ‘The manager has been really good for me. Hopefully, I’m repaying his faith.’

United defender Ross Graham claims ‘the only way is up’ for Liam Fox’s men after they got off the bottom of the Premiership table by beating Ross County last midweek. The 21-year-old centre-back insists there was never any panic but knows they will need to discover some consistency to ensure they can now get away from the lower reaches. ‘We always had a pretty positive mood,’ said Graham. ‘We know we are a good squad and would eventually get off the bottom of the table. ‘Now that we are off, we are looking to keep pushing up and climbing the table. The only way is up now. ‘We can’t take things for granted, though. We need to go out in every game and show that quality and get results, or we will stay down the bottom.’