Tommy Wright bemoans lack of praise for St Johnstone

Michael OHallorans late strike at Kilmarnock on Saturday gave St Johnstone all three points in their Premiership opener. Picture: SNS.

Saints, who have finished in the Ladbrokes Premiership top six for the last six seasons, began their league campaign with a 2-1 win at Kilmarnock on Saturday, when on-loan winger Michael O’Halloran marked his return to the Perth club with a late winner.

Ahead of the Betfred Cup last-16 tie against Partick Thistle at McDiarmid Park tonight, Wright was irked by the fall-out from the game “in general” and the perception of his side.

He said: “Being St Johnstone, they seem to be concentrating more on how poor the defending was instead of looking at how great the [O’Halloran] goal was.

“Maybe if it was a different colour shirt there would be more made of it.

“It is a great goal. You can look at the defending all day long but to do that goal on that surface, which isn’t a great surface, was incredible.

“And the David Wotherspoon goal was another good goal but again there seemed to be a lot of concentration on how poorly it was defended and not looking at the  positives.

“It is the same old again. We don’t get the credit. Apparently we bought fouls and made the most fouls in the game, and that’s how we won the game.

“Listen, people rabbit on and they say things but at the end of the day we deserved to win the game.

“But I think there is a tendency to label us in a certain way. For 60 minutes we were very good with the ball.

“How they got back into the game is we gave away a stupid free-kick and Kris Boyd scored a great free-kick, and for 20 minutes they put long balls in the box which we dealt with and it was good defending.

“But if their players are going to make fouls what is the referee supposed to do? We don’t buy fouls. But it is the same old. We win it because we are streetwise not because we played well.”

Fellow Premiership side Partick Thistle, who made the top six last season, will be familiar foes for the Saints.

Wright said: “They had a great season last season.  Obviously this is a big season for them.

“We know how difficult it is to replicate top six. Alan Archibald has done a great job. We played them five or six times last season.

“We know each other well so it is going to be a tough game.”