Tommy Wright: Final touch evaded St Johnstone

Posted Sunday, July 15, 2018 by PA

Tommy Wright admits shot-shy St Johnstone lacked a killer touch as they kicked-off their Betfred Cup campaign with a goalless draw at home to East Fife.

Top-flight Saints bossed the possession stakes but were unable to convert that to goals as Darren Young’s Ladbrokes League One side stuck to their defensive task.

In the end, Wright’s Perth outfit had to be content with a bonus point after former Saints midfielder Craig Thomson sinned in the penalty shoot-out.

But the Northern Irishman expects his side to up their game in the coming weeks.

“We should have won the game with the amount of possession we had and the positions we got ourselves in to,” said Wright after his side won the spot-kick decider 5-4.

“But the final ball and the finishing wasn’t good enough, we wasted too many opportunities.

“I thought we played the way we are looking to play against a team who we knew would pack it and make it difficult for us.

“But we didn’t do enough in the final third.

“We still have work to do to get to the level we want to be at for the start of the league season.

“We wanted to win the first game, obviously, but we just didn’t do enough when we got into those good positions.”

East Fife boss Darren Young was delighted with his side’s efforts.

He said: “If you’d offered us a draw at St Johnstone before the game then we’ve have been delighted and then it came down to penalties which is a lottery.”