Festive cheer in short supply as

With no goals, there was little else for it but St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright was happy to accentuate the positives of a third successive clean sheet after a frustrating stalemate against St Mirren.

The Perth side will point to enjoying the most clearcut opportunity of a bleak 90 minutes that spread little Christmas cheer to those inside Mcdiarmid Park.

But with St Mirren keeper Vaclav Hladky winning his personal duel with Michael O’halloran in the first half, it proved to be a disappointing afternoon for both teams in front of goal.

In such circumstances, with his side having eased themselves off the foot of the Premiership in recent weeks, racking up a hat-trick of consecutive shut-outs was welcomed by Wright.

“It was a difficult game,” he said. “They worked extremely hard and made it difficult for us, at times. But we had the best chances and we didn’t take them. They were the better clear-cut chances.

“I thought a draw was probably a fair result but if we had taken one of those chances in the first half then I think we would have gone on to win the game

“We didn’t do enough, too many players dwelt on the ball and were not as positive as we should have been when we had the ball.

“But, once again, we defended well and that’s a positive.

“St Mirren were very direct. They made it pretty difficult at times but we stood up to that. So that pleased me.

“It’s three games unbeaten and when you’ve been in the position we’ve been in that’s a positive.”

Both sides could claim to be