Quotes from the manager’s post match media conference. This is what he had to say to the press:

“Very pleased.

“We know how difficult it can be here.

“I thought we started the game really bright.

“I thought we showed confidence on the ball. I thought we showed a really good work rate against it. We got the goals at the right time and also passed up some real opportunities to go and get more – May hit the bar and Adam should score when he was through.

“But if you had said before the game that we would get another clean sheet, another positive performance and three goals at such a difficult venue, then we would have grabbed that with both hands.

“All in all, a good night’s work.

“I remember down here we played very well in the 4-3 game. We were three up but St Johnstone came back strongly that day and you always expect that from them. We reminded the players of that at half time. There was still work to done. There is a real competitive edge to the St Johnstone players and they always keep going so we did not want to give them any encouragement and we did not want the game to be too dramatic in the second half. It could have been as boring as anything but we wanted to be in charge of the game.

“We still had some good opportunities and had some good moments of play. I think a lot of our players are playing with confidence again and their games are in a good place.

“To get another clean sheet is very pleasing. Plus three goals and also to come through the game without any injuries was pleasing. We took Stevie May off because he has still got a bit of fluid in the ankle, so we had to make sure we looked after him. He could have played longer if needed. I thought the subs came on and gave us something as well.

“For the first goal I was screaming at Greg Stewart for not shooting! He saw Rooney unmarked and it was a nice calm finish from Adam. Before that we got into good areas but were a bit reluctant to pull the trigger. St Johnstone to be fair also defended quite well when we got into that final phase of play.

“On Dundee on Friday night I felt we did not have that cutting edge to out play. We scored a scrappy goal. We got into some good areas but did not show that penetration. But I thought tonight our forward players did well. Rooney, Stewart and May and Christie and McLean behind them were bright. I played Shinnie at left back so we had more of a threat in those wide areas.

“Special mention also to the three central players – O’Connor, Arnason and McKenna. I thought they nullified a lot of the St Johnstone threat and their concentration levels were good for the majority of the game. They did very well.

“It is an easy thing to assume the speculation was the reason we did not play well before. I felt when we won at Kilmarnock we were really convincing with our performance and imposed ourselves on the game. I thought it was a very Aberdeen type performance. I thought we would follow that up but we had two very disappointing results against Rangers. But it was not just about us. I thought Rangers played very well especially at Ibrox. When you don’t win games it is easy to assume there was a problem and the focus was on the speculation but for me I think the players needed to take a bit more responsibility for their own game and I think they are doing that at the minute.

“Are they subconsciously in a better state of mind now? You would need to ask the players, but the work was the same from us. The preparation was still there. Sometimes though you do the all preparation Monday to Friday and the result does not come. And that is why the difference between winning and losing is everything because you put so much into it.

“Everything from the scouting reports, the video analyst, the training and making it specific (to the opponent), getting the players mentally right; when the result does not come you are always disappointed, but I think at our club over the past few years we have raised the standards and when the wins don’t come, as what happened in the past few weeks, it can be seen as being quite dramatic.

“And we are not used to not winning games over a period of time.

“So it was good to get back to winning ways. Hopefully winning becomes more of a habit for us. We have some big games coming up, a brilliant game to look forward to on Saturday and hopefully we can take the performances from the last two games and any confidence the players have into it. That will surely help.

“We have four games now before the winter break and we know the importance of finishing strong. Hopefully we can come away from the Hearts game on the 30th of December really pleased with our work. I think we are at least five points clear of where we were at this time last season which is maybe surprising. Everything has been better this season in terms of the stats apart from the cleansheets, so it was good to get another one tonight.

“Hopefully we can get some more positive results before the winter break.”