Tommy Wright: St Johnstone can move on from weekend fracas
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright believes the only effect Saturday's internal fracas will have on his squad is a galvanising one.
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright believes the only effect Saturday's internal fracas will have on his squad is a galvanising one.
The club have suspended full-back Richard Foster and midfielder Danny Swanson after they were sent off following a clash on the half-time whistle of St Johnstone's 1-0 defeat at Hamilton.
The team-mates will miss Wednesday's Ladbrokes Premiership visit of Hearts but Wright is confident his squad's morale will remain strong.
The incident overshadowed Saints clinching a top-six spot for the sixth consecutive season, an achievement made possible by their team spirit, among other attributes.
Wright said: "The investigation will start today (Monday) and until that's concluded there will be no further comment made on the incident.
"We have moved on from it as best we can, and hopefully that will conclude very quickly, and we'll draw a line totally under it.
"But it won't affect the dressing room, it won't affect the players. In fact, it might galvanise us even more. I have no problems on that count.
"Footballers in defeat want to get back to winning ways as soon as possible so having a midweek game is a great thing to have.''
Fourth-placed St Johnstone already gave a strong indication they would not crumble in the wake of the disruption when their nine remaining players held out against Hamilton until Alex D'Acol's 89th-minute goal.
"We didn't hold out and at the end a lack of concentration gifts them a goal but overall the second-half performance was one of character, one of resilience, and probably deserved to get a point out of the game in the end,'' Wright said.
"The crowd in the second half was right behind the team and gave them a lot of encouragement, we just unfortunately couldn't hold out.
"And hopefully we get a bounce-back, it's a midweek game and hopefully the fans come out and appreciate what the players have done for them this season so far and encourage them to try to get that fourth place.''
Wright was also boosted by the performance of 19-year-old Clive Smith, who came on for the start of the second half.
The Saints boss said: "Terrible circumstances to make your debut in and I thought he acquitted himself well, and proves what a good young player he is. Obviously he'll get an opportunity now in the next couple of games.''
And the fitness of skipper Steven Anderson has given Wright a further lift by making impressive progress from the ankle injury that ruled him out on Saturday
"When he hurt his ankle on Monday, it was feared he would be out for a long time but that's not the case,'' Wright said. "Ando being Ando, his powers of recovery are remarkable. We thought we were going to be looking at four to six weeks.
"I wouldn't rule him out for Wednesday but certainly Saturday he should be back in the frame.''