Tommy Wright praised his St Johnstone team for ending their four-game losing streak with a battling win over Motherwell at Fir Park.
The Perth side were thumped 6-0 in their last match against Celtic and were without a win in five matches going to Lanarkshire – conceding 15 goals in the process.
Northern Irishman Wright believes his players can press ahead now after Jason Kerr’s injury-time header sealed a much-needed victory.
Wright said: “I knew we’d get a reaction from the players, and that’s what we got. The players have taken a bit of a battering, particularly with the two results against the Old Firm.
“They should enjoy this one, and look forward to another good week’s work and the next game against St Mirren.
“But we’ll not take anything for granted. Even if we’d just got a point today, it would’ve been a great point given the run of results we’ve had.”
It was a deserved win for St Johnstone, who forced Motherwell keeper Trevor Carson into a string of fine saves to keep the scores level.
However, Carson could do nothing in the 92nd minute as Liam Craig whipped in a corner for Kerr to smash a powerful header into the back of the net with just seconds remaining.
Wright said: “We knew coming here, what type of game it would be – we knew we’d have to battle, and stand up to balls in the box.
“Motherwell are really good at this, but our three centre-halves were outstanding. It was a good header from Jason, and I think he should get more of those goals as he is great at attacking the ball like that.
“There was a lot of character in our performance here.”
Stephen Robinson was left frustrated by another turgid Motherwell performance, as their search for a home win this season continues.
After a poor first half with zero chances, Motherwell brought on Elliott Frear and Danny Johnston for the ineffective Curtis Main and Chris Cadden, but it made little difference as Saints continued to dominate to eventually edge the win in stoppage time.
Robinson said: “The subs that I put on didn’t make any difference to the match.
“We were slightly handicapped by injuries again, but we have plenty of others that need to step up to the plate – particularly our older players.”
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