Tommy Wright admits St Johnstone in a scrap at bottom of Premiership

Posted Wednesday, February 07, 2018 by PA

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright admitted his side were in a battle at the bottom after their 2-0 defeat at Motherwell.

Saints started brightly but fell away after a goalless first half and never offered any goal threat.

They slipped six points behind Motherwell, who moved into sixth, and remain just six above the bottom.

Wright said: “We’re in a scrap. I hope they are ready for it. I told them to forget about top six. We don’t talk about top six but we will forget about it. All we have got to do is concentrate on winning the next game.

“We asked the players how they could go from the start they made to how they played in the second half but they didn’t have too many answers.

“We allowed them to get on the front foot because we didn’t do the basics and I am extremely disappointed.

“It is nearly beyond belief how they can go from what they did in the first half to what they did in the second.”

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson revealed Curtis Main was far from satisfied despite taking his Motherwell tally to four goals in six matches since his January move from Portsmouth.

The striker helped set up Allan Campbell’s 64th-minute opener before netting from 18 yards six minutes later.

But Robinson said: “He’s not happy with himself, he’s beating himself up that he should have had more goals.

“He probably should have done, he hit the crossbar and had a couple of chances he expected to score. But that’s good, that’s the standards we want.”

Robinson was also full of praise for 19-year-old midfielder Campbell, who burst on to Richard Tait’s low cross to cap an energetic display.

“Absolutely brilliant,” Robinson said. “The wee man inspires me. Sometimes when it’s a game like that and the game is dead and the atmosphere is not as good as it is on some occasions, he absolutely inspires me and the other players.

“To be one of the youngest players on the pitch and doing that is a huge credit.”