Keith Watson on returning to first team action

Wednesday 25th January

Saints defender Keith Watson was delighted to get back into the starting eleven for last Saturday's Scottish Cup win over Stenhousemuir, his first competitive match for Saints at McDiarmid Park in a season disrupted by injuries.

“It was great to be out there. It's been a long and frustrating few months for me so to get out there and make my home debut and get the win is great. I thought performance-wise I did well. I started off really sharp and maybe tired a bit towards the end but that's to be expected.

“I'm feeling fit at the moment and fingers crossed I don't pick up anything else. I just really want to kick on now at St. Johnstone and play as many games as I can. It's been horrible missing so many games. There's nothing worse than sitting in the stands and wanting to be part of it. But I'm fighting-fit now and back involved so I'm delighted.

“I think it was a good win (over Stenhousemuir) first and foremost. Obviously the first half we played really well and took a two-nil lead. The second half was frustrating at times but we had a lot of the ball and it was maybe just that final pass we couldn't quite get to extend our lead. But overall it was fairly comfortable.”

The 27-year-old believes anything is possible when it comes to the Scottish Cup, having played in the final of the competition on two occasions, both for Dundee United. The first was a 3-0 win over Ross County at Hampden in 2010, in a match Danny Swanson also played. The second was, of course, the 2-0 loss to his present club St. Johnstone at Celtic Park in 2014.

“I came off the bench in the final in 2010 to win it with Dundee United. I also played in the one where St. Johnstone beat Dundee United in the final so it obviously wasn't a great experience for myself to lose in a final.

“But it's a great competition and everyone wants to do well in it from the players, to the coaches, to the club and the supporters. We've got to fancy our chances. We've done it before so there's no reason we can't do it again.”

Saints travel to Glasgow in the Scottish Premiership this evening to take on run away leaders Celtic, before facing Hamilton Accies in Perth this coming Saturday.

“Obviously it's a tough one on Wednesday night going to Parkhead. Celtic are flying at the moment so wee need to make sure we're on the top of our game as we'll need to be if we want to take anything from the game. Once we have Celtic out of the way we can turn our attention to the Hamilton match on Saturday.

“In the league we want to secure top six. It's a really tight league at the moment so we just want to take things game by game and hopefully cement our place in the top of the table in the next couple of months.”

RC