Jack Sanders: Moving forward with excitement and positivity

The St Johnstone squad is looking ahead with excitement and plenty of positive energy, Jack Sanders insists.

There was disappointment on Saturday with a narrow 2-1 defeat against Hearts at McDiarmid Park but the defender feels the style of play and effort on show bodes well for the future.

“Everyone is buying into it,” he said of new head coach Simo Valakari’s approach. “The change has been really positive and every player will improve under him, which is important for the club.

“Everyone has bought into the gaffer’s philosophy and how he wants to play. We’re enjoying it, just disappointed we didn’t get the result on Saturday.

“There is a different belief around the place. We’re raring to go, ready to train and improve as a team. The positive energy the gaffer and his staff have brought is only going to help us.

“I know I’m striving to improve every day. I’ve not come here as the finished article centre back and I’m desperate to get better. I’ll work day in, day out to make sure I’m as good as I can be.”

We fell behind on Saturday before Nicky Clark’s second half penalty levelled proceedings.  But Hearts found the winner as the game reached its latter stages.

“You could see the fans were really up for it and probably predicted we could go on to win the game [when we scored the equaliser],” Sanders explained.

“But I think, when we scored, our levels dropped a little bit and that was a really important time in the game. We thought we had all the momentum, then our levels dropped.

“That cost us. If our levels had increased after we scored, the outcome of the game would have been different.

“There was a lot of huffing and puffing. One thing with this group of boys is that we’ll leave everything out on the pitch.”

He added: “The boys were really disappointed with the result. It was similar to previous games where our performance was of a decent level but we didn’t back it up with a result.

“It’s no good putting in good performances with good possession and shots on target without turning it into wins.

“We’re really disappointed with that but are hoping to continue playing the way we have been and that the results turn.”