The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Veteran has plenty to offer after passing 350 milestone
Pas sing career landmarks is a regular occurrence for Li am Craig these days. And the St Johnstone midfielder is confident that there will soon be a rhythm to winning games of football as well.
The veteran midfielder made his 350th Saints start in the midweek draw with Hamilton Accies, which was also his 300th game in the top flight.
The highs have vastly outnumbered the lows in those appearances and Craig will use his experience to help make sure that trend continues for the Perth club into 2021.
“It’s always nice to reach these milestones,” said the former Falkirk and Hibs man. “But the main thing for me is that I’m still helping the team.
“Even though I turned 34 last week, I’ve still got plenty to offer.
“We’ve got a younger squad–you’ ve got to remember that G or dy ( Liam Gordon ), Jamie ( Mccart), Jason ( Kerr), Danny (Mcnamara), Shaun (Rooney) and Ali (Mccann) are still young players – and it’s important that the senior players step up and help them, which we did last year.”
That Saints need a couple of wins to quieten talk about a possible relegation battle isn’t down to any fundamental flaws in their team.
As was shown again in the stalemate with Accies, there really is only one big issue that needs to be addressed.
“You can count on one hand the number of games where teams have dominated us this season,” said Craig.
“That’s why there is a huge belief that we can go and win games.
“But when you don’ t score, you leave yourselves open to dropping points.
“Even there against Hamilton they had a wee breakaway in the last couple of minutes.
“If we take our chances, we don’t need to worry about that sort of thing.
“It’s important we stay positive. There’s a great group of players in there and we’re doing all the right things apart from putting it in the net.”
Craig added: “Frustration is the word to use to describe Wednesday’ s game.
“The performance was decent, we were defensively solid enough, moved the ball well into good areas but didn’ t take our chances.
“That’s why we only got one point rather than all three.
“The performance level was good at Aberdeen as well.
“It’s not just the forward players who have to score goals – everybody needs to take responsibility.
“We move on to Ross County now and we’ll be looking to take that level of performance into the game, but take our chances this time.
“It’s not as if this is a squad of players low on confidence.
“We believe in what we’re doing day in, day out. Hopefully we can add that final bit on Saturday.”
John Hughes has made an early impact at County since replacing Stuart Kettle well, with the Staggies’ win at Easter Road the e ye- catching result of the midweek Premiership card.
Craig doesn’t need any lessons on his old Falkirk boss’s powers of motivation.
“He’s the manager who gave me my first professional contract ,” Craig said.
“It’s great that he’s back in the game. I’ve sent him a couple of text messages.
“His enthusiasm is brilliant. Hopefully we can win the game and then have a catch-up after.
“It’ s always a hard game there, whoever the manager is.
“They beat us here earlier in the season in one of those frustrating games I was talking about.”
This will be Danny Mcnamara’s last game before he returns to Millwall, while Callum Hen dry returns from suspension.
Manager Call um Davidson said: “The league has split into two at the moment and they’re all big games.
“This is another one. “Like Hamilton, Ross County are fighting and scrapping.
“We have to make sure we perform as we did against Aberdeen and Hamilton, when we’ve been unlucky. If we do that, I’ll be happy.
“If we create as many chances again then I’m confident we’ll score.
“Strikers go on streaks of scoring – we saw that with Stevie (May) earlier in the season.”