First Team
Tommy looking to build on solid start
31st August 2018
Tommy Wright takes his Saints side to Hamilton tomorrow in the Ladbrokes Premiership and the manager is hoping to build on what has been a solid start to the campaign.
Following the opening day defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, Tommy's men have picked up four points from two home games against Hibernian and Dundee respectively, and the manager has another three points in his sights this weekend.
It's been a mixed start for tomorrow's opponents Hamilton, who managed an impressive victory away to local rivals Motherwell sandwiched in between a 4-1 defeat on the opening day to Hearts and last weekend's 1-0 defeat to champions Celtic.
Looking ahead to this weekend's game, Tommy has already set his sights on the first points landmark of the season.
"I say it every year but I like to look at ten points as a good marker," the manager said, "once we've got that first win under our belt I always like to look at ten points and that's what we'll be aiming to get to in the coming weeks.
"I think we've had a reasonably good start to the season and really the only disappointment was a poor 45 minutes against Kilmarnock which has been our only defeat so far.
"We're looking to build on that this weekend but we know Hamilton will be a tough opponent. If you look at the games between the two sides in the past, although we have a good record they are always quite close matches.
"I watched them against Celtic and I think they'll feel pretty hard done by that they didn't come away with something from the game. We know they'll make it a tough contest but if we play how we know we can play then I'm confident of a good result."
The match will see Saints play on yet another plastic pitch and while it's not the manager's cup of tea, he won't be looking to use that as an excuse on Saturday.
"I'm not a fan of them," Tommy said, "and I think if you asked the majority of the players in the league they'd be of the same opinion. Players with ankle and knee problems tend to come off the pitches feeling a lot stiffer than they would on grass.
"It's something that we'll deal with though and the players will train on the AstroTurf here today in preparation for tomorrow. It's our fifth away game of the season so far and every game has been on a synthetic surface so the players are used to it.
"Having seen the pitch this season it does look in a lot better condition so hopefully it will play fine and not cause any problems - we certainly won't be using it as an excuse anyway."
New recruit Tristan Nydam will be in the squad for tomorrow's game and David Wotherspoon comes back into the fold, but Brian Easton remains sidelined and also dropping out are Callum Hendry - who has joined Brechin City on-loan - and Murray Davidson who had his operation on an ankle injury yesterday.
"Murray had the operation yesterday and there was a bit of tidying up to be done in there," the manager said.
"I think we're looking at around six weeks but I'm always conscious with operations that these timescales can only be used as a guideline.
"He did text me straight away after the operation yesterday to say he'd be back in training on Monday but that's definitely not going to happen!
"Brian Easton is still out and young Callum Hendry has gone out on-loan, but Tristan has trained well this week and he'll come into the squad on Saturday along with David Wotherspoon who returns from injury.
"Tristan has been impressive and looks every bit as good as I expected him to be. He's energetic, has a good range of passing and he gets about the pitch well so I think he's a good addition for us."
The transfer deadline closes in Scotland tonight and the manager isn't ruling out some activity in the final hours of the window.
"You never know and if the right player becomes available to us then we might do something. There have been enquiries about some of our young players going out on-loan as well but that window remains open for the lower leagues for another month. So, there could still be the possibility of players going out on-loan after the window closes tonight.
"If we can add another player to strengthen then we'll certainly try but if not, I'm happy with the squad and I think we've had a very good windows this summer."
Tomorrow's match at the Hope CBD Stadium is a 3PM kick-off and the referee is Bobby Madden.