Boss Wright sees his Saints go marching on but Accies facing a fight for survival
ST JOHNSTONE haven’t looked back since their opening-day defeat at Kilmarnock and this well-deserved win hoisted them up to fourth place, at least until this afternoon.
The home side were jeered off their plastic pitch at the interval and at full-time and it already looks like being another long war of attrition for Accies as they indulge in their annual battle against the drop.
For Saints boss Tommy Wright, though, it was a nice end to a 24 hours in which he re-signed Danny Swanson from Hibs and landed Ross Callachan from Hearts.
‘It’s never easy coming here, although I must say their pitch played well and it suited us,’ he said.
‘It was a wee bit slippery at times but we passed the ball well. To be honest, we should have been more than two goals ahead before they scored but we saw the game out and I don’t recall Zander Clark having a save to make.
‘It’s strange because I hate plastic pitches but we seem to do well here.’
Weak defending from Saints’ Jason Kerr in the 15th minute allowed Rakish Bingham to shrug him off the ball and fire in a low drive which Perth No1 Clark needed two attempts to gather.
Saints replied with a 25-yarder from Matthew Kennedy which failed to trouble Accies’ goalkeeper Gary Woods.
Bingham then appealed for a penalty following a challenge from Joe Shaughnessy but referee
Bobby Madden was right to reject the claim.
However, after a long, drab period the visitors broke the deadlock eight minutes from the interval. Kennedy’s shot ricocheted kindly for David McMillan, whose diving header was pushed out by Woods.
Unfortunately for the latter, Blair Alston was first to the loose ball and he drove it firmly into the net.
Saints doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time. Poor defending by Accies allowed McMillan a free header at the far post and the Irish striker had a simple task to convert Richard Foster’s cross from point-blank range.
The Perth men continued where they left off after the break, with Tony Watt cutting inside to fire in a low drive which Woods was alert enough to keep out.
The keeper then came to Hamilton’s rescue again after Alston had created an opening for himself.
A third goal would have killed the game but it didn’t come and the home side grabbed a lifeline when Scott Boyd set up Bingham, who passed the ball into Clark’s bottom right-hand corner from 15 yards.
The visitors ought to have made the points secure in the 84th minute when substitute Chris Kane sent Alston clear.
Woods raced out to tackle the striker, but when the ball broke back to Alston, he fired wide.
Hamilton couldn’t make another opening and slid to another home defeat, to the disgust of boss Martin Canning.
‘It was really poor defending for both goals,’ he said.
‘It should have been 0-0 at half-time but we were punished for our mistakes.
‘The second goal was a case of switching off and ball-watching and the first a comedy of errors. Take nothing away from St Johnstone, who did well, but I’ve told our players that we beat ourselves today, we shot ourselves in the foot.’