First Team
Late penalty costs Saints
1st May 2018
Saints were denied all three points from Saturday’s home match against Partick Thistle thanks to a late Conor Sammon penalty, much to the frustration of manager Tommy Wright.
The home side took the lead in the first-half thanks to captain Joe Shaughnessy’s goal, but a foul by Liam Craig with just minutes remaining saw Sammon despatch his penalty past Zander Clark to give the visitors a share of the spoils.
The Saints boss had no complaints about the penalty but was disappointed by the build-up to the incident which he felt could have been handled better by his players. It leaves Saints in 8th place, three points behind Motherwell with three games left to play.
Speaking about Saturday’s performance, Tommy Wright said: “I felt that once again our performance was good but that the result doesn’t do it any justice.
“We controlled large periods of the game and once again it is lapses in concentration that have cost us like on many other occasions this season. I felt we could’ve dealt with the long ball better in the build-up to the penalty incident and the end result is we’ve drawn a game that we really should’ve won.
“The players aren’t robots and mistakes are going to happen, but I feel we’ve dropped points in the past two games because of costly errors and that kind of sums up our season.
“I’m not going to criticise our performance because once again I felt we played well and the players are getting more comfortable in the formation with three at the back now which is positive.
“We’ve got three very different games between now and the end of the season and our objective remains the same – to finish in 7th place. It’s still possible but we know we’re going to have some difficult games.
“It’s a Motherwell side battling with us for 7th place, and both Hamilton and Ross County are scrapping to survive in the league so we’re going to have to be at our best in all three of our final games.”
Despite taking some positives from Saturday’s draw, the manager also had to watch his striker Steven MacLean pick up a booking which now rules him out of the final two matches of the season.
“Steven’s booking means he’s suspended for the last game of the season, and obviously we all know he can’t play on the AstroTurf at Hamilton. That means his finally match for the club will be on Saturday against Motherwell.”
Saints head to Fir Park to take on Motherwell on Saturday before a midweek trip to Hamilton Accies next Tuesday in the penultimate match of the season. Ross County visit McDiarmid on Saturday 12th May to bring the curtain down on the 2017/18 campaign.