Tommy Wright accused his St Johnstone players of "criminal" defending after they lost 2-1 to St Mirren at McDiarmid Park yesterday. Visiting defender Jason Naismith opened the scoring in the 28th minute after Michael O'Halloran had lost possession deep in his own half. Saints equalised through defender Steve Anderson with a header in the 67th minute and the Perth men still looked more likely to get the next goal. However, in doing so they left themselves wide open and with five minutes remaining, Adam Drury, on loan from Manchester City, fired in a counter-attacking winner which left Wright fuming.
The Northern Irishman said: "We dominated the second-half and at worst we should have come away with a point but we didn't because we commit too many men forward and don't react quick enough. The goal was criminal at this level. That is the sort of goal you see when you are 2-1 down and chasing to get back in the game. It shouldn't have happened but unfortunately it has and it takes away from a decent second-half performance and a game we should have won. We are gifting too many goals at the moment. Even though their first one was a great strike we shouldn't lose possession where we do and we are getting punished for it. We should get a point. I am not using that as an excuse, that we didn't get the rub of the green in terms of decisions."
St Mirren manager Tommy Craig hailed his young side after just their second win of the season which took them into 10th place. He said: "I thought we shaded the first half, they came into it in the second-half and got their goal and at that time if there was a goal going to be scored it would have been for them because they had momentum. But we hit them on the break and Drury kept his composure really well for a 19-year-old. And on that, we had 18 players stripped today and only three were over 22 (Kello, Jim Goodwin and Marc McAusland). I would like that to be mentioned because it is part of what we are trying to do. It is difficult times. We have had a horrible start to the season but we can see a wee bit of daylight. We haven't turned the corner but we have gone some way towards that."
Drury said: "It was good that we got the result and it is always nice to score. Ross Caldwell did brilliantly to pick me out and the pass really helped me to get my finish away. When you have time to think they can sometimes be the difficult ones but luckily I hit it clean and it went in so I can't complain."