St Johnstone 2 - 1 Brechin City: Anderson’s relief as Saints struggle to make progress

ST JOHNSTONE defender Steven Anderson believes the SPL side only have themselves to blame for their struggle to overcome Brechin City in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

Murray Davidson’s early opener put Saints on course for a comfortable afternoon before Paul McManus levelled for the Second Division side.

In-demand striker Francisco Sandaza netted just 30 seconds into the second-half to restore the hosts’ lead but Brechin rallied late on to set up a nervous finish at McDiarmid Park.

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Anderson believes that St Johnstone’s performance was well below the standard that has helped move them into contention for European football next season.

“Brechin got in our faces and made it difficult for us, although we have only ourselves to blame losing a silly goal,” said Anderson.

“There’s always shocks in the cup and I’m happy it wasn’t here. We’re lucky to be through. I know about Jim Weir’s teams and they always tend to be hard-working and will give you everything, but I think it’s more about St Johnstone and how poor our performance was.

“For the goal Jody [Morris] headed the ball back and it was short. Peter Enckelman came out to collect the ball and took me out instead. Everybody makes mistakes though and it’s how you react to them that matters – we didn’t react well to ours.”

Sandaza notched another important goal to secure Saints’ place in the next round. The Spaniard has been linked with a move to Rangers in recent weeks but Anderson is confident that, if he does leave the club, St Johnstone can still compete in the top half of the SPL.

“He will go on to bigger and better things as he’s scoring goals.

“If he goes now, it’s good business for the club as he came to the club on a free transfer and they’ll make money from the transfer,” Anderson admitted.

“If he stays we’ll see where we finish but I believe we have the players to continue the good work if he leaves during the transfer window.

“I’d obviously like to see us hold on to him to the summer so that he can score more goals for the club but if he does leave we have plenty of players here desperate to play and ready to come in.”