Saints’ points haul pleases boss

Tommy Wright is satisfied with St Johnstone’s Premiership points return from their four home games in a row, writes Eric Nicolson.

And now the focus has switched to maintaining that momentum on the road.

Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Hearts away are Saints’ next three games as the Perth club seek to break free of the four-team logjam at the bottom of the table.

“That’s us taken seven points from our last four games so we have to be happy with that,” said Wright. “We need to build on it at the weekend against Motherwell.

“I was delighted for the players that they held out for a point against Aberdeen.

“They (Aberdeen) are third in the table and have been scoring plenty goals on their travels.

“We did a good job defensively, particularly late on when we were down to nine men. But I am still looking for improvement.”

St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark believes holding Aberdeen to a draw with nine men showed how “resolute” they are.

Saints made life hard for themselves at Mcdiarmid Park on Sunday when both Murray Davidson and Callum Hendry got themselves sent off.

The red cards were deserved and left the home team hanging on at 1-1 with around a quarter of an hour remaining, including stoppage-time.

That they achieved that goal was largely down to some super saves from Clark in the closing stages.

The precious point may have not been enough to move them off the bottom of the Premiership – they have the worst goal difference – but they did move level on the 11-point mark with Hamilton, St Mirren and Hearts.

They also have a game in hand on second-bottom Accies.

Clark said: “It was a great point for us.

“When we went down to nine men we were solid and defended our box well. It was pleasing to take something away from a game like that. We were resolute.

“If you lose late on the feeling is horrible, so I am glad we took something from it.

“It will be a massive boost for our confidence as a team and especially the back four.

“We have been disappointed with the way we have defended in weeks gone by but we could watch this one back and take a lot of pleasure from it.

“We have to continue that spirit of everyone fighting for one another.”

Clark admitted that the stadium clock took longer than usual to tick.

He said: “The last 15 minutes seemed to go on forever.

“I kept looking at the clock. I thought it had maybe been paused!

“There was wave after wave of attack from Aberdeen and we knew we just had to soak it up.”