Change revealed in Saints’ Betfred objectives

When the Betfred Cup group stage got under way at Kelty Hearts, the prime objective for St Johnstone was inflating confidence in a squad that had dropped to the bottom of the Premiership.

Now for the beginning of the knockout rounds at Motherwell, the prime objective is glory.

Ve t e r a n m i d f i e l d e r Liam Craig has got his sights set on Hampden Park.

“When we played Brechin and Kelty in the first two games it was about seeing the bigger picture,” said the veteran midfielder.

“I said that to the players in the warm-up. We lost those type of games last season.

“It was important that we took care of them and then the Dundee United game was always going to be a difficult one and Peterhead as well.

“It wasn’ t great at Pe t e r h e a d but we’ v e found a way of winning and that will be the same at Motherwell.

“We’ ll go in with a game plan and hopefully we can play well and the performance level is as good as what it has been.

“If we do fall short with that then we just have to find a way to win the game like we did at Peterhead.”

Craig added: “It is going to be difficult but we have a group here who want to go on a cup run.

“I have lost six or seven semi-finals so I would like to change that finally and be part of a cup final.

“My first one was against Rangers when we got beat on penalties and I can’t get that out of my head!

“Every player dreams of winning cup competitions and tomorrow gives us an opportunity to get into the next round of it and it is one we are really looking forward to.

“If we can go with the same discipline and defensive performance that we have had over the last few weeks then we can win the game.”