Tommy Wright hailed the impact of James McFadden after the former Scotland hero helped inspire St Johnstone to a 2-1 win over Ross County. McFadden scored his first goal for the Perth club since joining last month and was influential throughout as the home side clung on for the full three points. The St Johnstone manager said: "James was excellent, I'm really pleased. I'm pleased for him because he's working really hard. He's been a big influence off the pitch; he's been a big influence since he came through the door because he gave everybody a lift. He's a quality player and he's getting fitter - in terms of match fitness, because he had a good level of fitness when he came and we didn't think it was that much of a risk. I don't tell James how to play, I just tell him where I want him to play and he goes and plays. His quality was evident today. I think there's an understanding with the other players but the thing about him is he holds the ball up, he gets people in to play. If you give him it, people can make forward runs knowing the ball will stick with him."
St Johnstone doubled the lead given to them by McFadden when Michael O'Halloran scored in the 73rd minute. However, Jake Jervis pulled a goal back for County just two minutes later and Saints were left hanging on for the win. Wright went on: "I think it could have been more comfortable but you've got to give them a lot of credit for putting us under pressure. In the first half I thought we were excellent but in the second half we didn't play as well - but we still created good opportunities to go 2-0 up. And then it was backs to the wall in terms of having to defend a lot of crosses - but we defended them well."
County manager Jim McIntyre bemoaned the way his bottom-of-the-table side had started the game but claimed they could have returned north with more than a defeat. He said: "I thought in the second half we were excellent and we had to be because in the first half St Johnstone started far better than us and did a lot better than us. We had to show real improvement after the break and I thought we did that. Our substitutes made a good impact and I thought if any team was going to score it was going to be us. I'm disappointed to leave with nothing. I thought we put enough into the game and created a couple of really good opportunities where we should maybe have picked a better pass, rather than trying to score ourselves. We never did the ugly side well, that was the truth of the matter. St Johnstone were winning more second balls, more headers, more tackles – the fundamentals that earn you the right to go and play. So, that was disappointing and when you start a game like that it's difficult then to pick it up."