Wright ready to ring changes after St Johnstone’s home defeat to Partick Thistle

Tommy Wright claims he has been “too loyal” to his players after St Johnstone went down 3-1 at home to Partick Thistle.

Saints are without a win at McDiarmid Park since September and were second best throughout against a struggling Thistle side.

They were two goals down through Steven Lawless and Conor Sammon before Liam Craig pulled one back from the spot, but Ryan Edwards’ late third capped off a thoroughly-deserved win for the Jags to leave Wright fuming with the efforts of his side.

The Saints boss promised to make changes for the rearranged William Hill Scottish Cup tie with Albion Rovers on Monday, saying: “When people don’t learn from mistakes, I have to sort it out and it’s my responsibility.

“There will be a few in there that won’t be involved on Monday because I’ve had enough of people starting games like that.

“We can’t get past the first 15 minutes at home without conceding a goal and we are gifting too many goals and gifting teams a foothold in the game.

“We take a throw in, give it to them and they nearly had a chance after 30 seconds. That is not acceptable.

“I have maybe been too loyal to too many for too long and there will be a lot of changes for Monday night.”

Jags manager Alan Archibald claimed his side started on the front foot to target Saints’ lack of match sharpness, with the hosts having not played since the winter break but Wright played down the significance of the fixture list.

“That’s not an excuse and not a factor,” he said. “The factor is people making bad decisions and it is costing us.

“There are quite a few not doing the basics at the minute and not doing what we have been good at, particularly at home.

“I don’t know why it’s so different away from home but I think it’s time for me to take the gloves off and I’m not scared to make changes because ultimately it’s down to me.”

While Saints have not won at home for several months, it has been a similar story on the road for Thistle, for whom this was their first league away win all season.

Archibald is aware that his side need to repeat their performance on a regular basis if they are to escape relegation trouble as they now sit six points clear of basement boys Ross County.

He said: “To get ourselves safe we need to pick up points on the road and we touched on that over the winter period.

“There’s no harder place to come and I’m delighted with it, but we have to build on that.”