The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Saints are no sinners – despite stalemate
Not pretty – but Perth men get third clean sheet in row
St Johnstone’s season has been peppered with heartening performances followed up by dispiriting setbacks but Murray Davidson is confident Saturday’s St Mirren stalemate wasn’t one of them.
The fact the Perth side’s standards dropped from the displays at Rugby Park and, in particular, Tynecastle can be balanced off, or even outweighed, by the statistics that give weight to the argument that their rise off the bottom of the table is built on solid foundations.
Three shut-outs in a row, three unbeaten and only two losses in eight is not the stuff of straw-clutching.
“It’s pretty basic that if you don’t concede goals you don’t lose games,” said Davidson.
“We were desperate to win but three clean sheets proves that we’re becoming more solid and hard to beat.
“Hopefully that will continue into two big games that we’ve got coming up.
“Liam (Gordon) and Jason (Kerr) feel comfortable alongside each other and three clean sheets in a row is proof of that. We still feel that we’ve got momentum. It was important that we didn’t lose this one.
“That’s five points in our last three games, two of which have been away and we’ve got three clean sheets. And we haven’t played anywhere near as well as we can. Earlier in the season we’d have lost that game today.”
With Drey Wright, Callum Hendry, Michael O’Halloran and Matty Kennedy all starting, there was no lack of attacking intent in the Tommy Wright team selection and set-up.
Saints could also fairly claim that they created the best chance of the match by far when Hendry put O’Halloran through on goal only for the former Rangers man to shoot straight at St Mirren keeper Vaclav Hladky.
Had it been O’Halloran putting Hendry through it would probably have been 1-0.
“I can remember looking at the clock with 15 minutes to go and it was pretty obvious that one goal would win it,” said Davidson. “It was important that at worst we came away with 0-0.
“We’re disappointed we haven’t played as well as we could have but the positive is that we got a point after not playing great.
“Both teams tried to win it. “There were a few chances – Mikey’s was probably the best of the game – and we’ve cancelled each other out.”
The crucial matches keep coming, with Hamilton away next up on Boxing Day.
“They’ve had a big win against Hearts,” said Davidson. “It’s still really tight down there.
“If we win our next two we could be close to Hibs. That’s how it is – a good run of form and you’re right in amongst it, a bad run of form and you’re back at the bottom. We know how important these two games are.
“Hamilton are similar to us and will probably have a similar budget. Every year it’s predicted that they’ll struggle.
“They’ve had such a successful period and that win against Hearts doesn’t surprise me.
“It’s massive for them and we know we’ll need to put in a better performance than today to get the win on Boxing Day.”
Perth boss Wright reflected: “I thought a draw was probably a fair result but we had the two best chances in the game.
“We should have taken at least one and if we had then it would have been different. It was a difficult game.
“St Mirren worked hard and made it tough for us.
“We didn’t do enough. Too many players dwelt on the ball and were not as positive as we should have been.
“Once again we defended well though and that’s a positive.
“St Mirren were very direct, they get the ball forward to Obika quickly but we stood up to that. So that pleased me.
“But in the final third of the pitch we’ll have better games because I don’t think we were positive enough.
“A win today would have put either team four points off Hibs so the disappointing thing is we didn’t capitalise on the chances we created.”
Buddies manager Jim Goodwin was content to take his point and move on.
He noted: “A point away from home is always a good result and this is a difficult venue to come to.
“We prepared well for a battle. We knew it wouldn’t be pretty and the pitch was heavy.
“We had to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in, so I was delighted with that.
“We ran ourselves into the ground and that battling quality will be vital for the rest of the season.
“In terms of the balance of the game I felt we were better but on clear cut chances St Johnstone had the better ones. I think a point was the fair result for both teams on the balance of how the game went.
“This is the first time all season we have put together a run of results.
“OK, it’s only a win and a couple of draws, but it has been important because of the teams we have been playing.”
Three clean sheets proves that we’re becoming more solid and hard to beat. MURRAY DAVIDSON