The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Saints pin hopes for Premiership on away battles
For a team that hasn’t won a home game for more than a third of a year, having three away matches out of their last four to preserve their Premiership status may be no bad thing.
But St Johnstone playmaker Graham Carey admitted that if they continue to shoot themselves in the foot, their decent record on the road won’t count for anything in the battle to stay ahead of Ross County.
“It’s strange that we’ve been doing better away from home for whatever reason,” said Carey, who was back in the starting line-up for Saints’ 3-1 weekend defeat to Hibs.
“It was the same last season. The onus isn’t on us to take the game to other teams and maybe that suits us better – sitting off and counter-attacking.
“It won’t matter if we play like we did in that first half, though.”
Saints were determined to make a fast start as the post-split phase of the campaign got under way.
But the opposite turned out to be the case.
“No keeper will save their free-kick into the top corner (when Emiliano Marcondes opened the scoring from 25 yards after just six minutes),” said Carey.
“But it just felt like they didn’t really need to play that well to get some chances. We kind of made it easy for them and then at the other end of the pitch we have to work so hard to get chances of our own.
“All in all, it was too easy for them – especially in the first half. It wasn’t down to a lack of effort.
“We tried to take the game to them and press them high.
“But we can be more aggressive on the ball. We were off it and they punished us. The manager wasn’t happy at half-time and rightly so.
“Second half was better but maybe them taking their foot off the gas a little bit had something to do with that.
“But it seems to be that we can’t put 90 minutes together at the moment.
“Sustaining things for a whole game will be our focus.”
Belief hasn’t drained out of the Perth side, according to the Irishman.
“I don’t think the confidence has gone,” he said. “It’s about teams scoring too easily against us and not taking our chances at the other end. We’re making life hard for ourselves.
“If that keeps happening it will come back to bite us. We’re putting ourselves in a hole over and over again.”
Saints went into the game looking for their third successive win over Hib. Skipper Liam Gordon returned to the defence with Carey and 16-year-old Fran Franczak also starting while, for the Edinburgh side, 37-year-old Adam Le Fondre replaced injured Elie Youan.
Hibs’ opener came after winger Martin Boyle was fouled by midfielder Dan Phillips 25 yards from goal, between the posts.
Danish attacking midfielder Marcondes, on loan from Bournemouth, took his time before curling his perfect free-kick past diving Saints keeper Dimitar Mitov and into the top corner.
The home side had a great chance to level minutes later when Marcondes lost possession in the middle of the pitch but Hibs keeper David Marshall blocked Adama Sidibeh’s shot. Then Marcondes set up Myziane Maolida inside the box at the other end and his shot was tipped on to the bar and over by Mitov.
In the 35th minute Maolida was brought down just outside the penalty area by Perth defender Ryan McGowan. A VAR check ruled out a possible penalty and this time Marcondes fired the freekick over the bar. Boyle then ended a lengthy, driving run by flicking the ball straight at Mitov.
However, after St Johnstone failed to clear from a long Joe Newell throw-in, the ball fell to Paul Hanlon, on for Will Fish midway through the first half, and at the second attempt he knocked it in from 12 yards, his first goal since May last year.
The Perth men’s response after the break lacked real conviction and in the 54th minute Phillips had to clear a shot from Maolida off the line after the Leith side had countered with pace and purpose.
Minutes after coming off the bench, Josh Campbell and Dylan Vente combined, with the latter racing clear of the Saints defence to latch on to a header and confidently slot the ball behind Mitov.
The home keeper then made a good save from Campbell on 86 minutes before Benji Kimpioka converted from close range for Saints’ consolation.