The Manager | Post Match Quotes …
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. Callum sets his teams up very well, they’re drilled and organised, everybody knows their job. In those situations you need to fight for any little bit of space in the game. We were too loose in possession and too ponderous early on, we know that it’s early season and we’ll get better as we go on, but we still had one or two moments of quality and Joe only had one save to make, from McNamara from distance in the first half. We’ve contained them and that’s a positive for us. It looked from very early that one goal would be enough and thankfully, we got it.
“The subs gave us a bit of energy at the right times and certainly the goal did as well because a few boys were flagging at that stage. That’s understandable, it’s our second competitive game in five and a half months. You can train hard, you can have bounce games, but nothing is ever at that same intensity of real, competitive football. We’ve seen it in previous seasons with Europa League games which are generally our first fixtures, the performances generally improve from the first game to the second, to the third, to the fourth.
“I wouldn’t say St Johnstone were any better than us but they were a bit sharper with their work from having the extra couple of games and that will come for us over the next ten days with another three games to come.
“What really pleased me was that while we’re still working hard to find that form and rhythm, the character of the team, the togetherness of the team, the resilience of the team, the effort, it was all outstanding tonight. We worked hard to minimise their opportunities but also to see the importance of getting all three points and I couldn’t be more pleased for my players that they did that. In other games we’ll have to play better than this to win, but tonight, it got us over the line. I’m really proud of the players because I know how much they wanted to get a result and respond tonight and now we have to carry that determination into the next game.
“The goal was one of the few times we had space to drive through the pitch. Bryson ran and took McCart away and a big space opened up for Ryan and from there it was all about getting a good connection. There was a bit of fortune with the deflection but if you drive into the box and the defend as deep as that, you make these things happen.
“Getting that first win of the season is massive, I’ve said that all through my career as a manager. If you go a few without it, you get asked about it, the pressure builds, it becomes an issue, so having missed out on playing three matches, it was important to get up and running tonight.
“It was a good start for McCrorie. Like the others, he’s going to improve with games but what you saw especially second half was when he needed to make challenges he did, he got his head on things, you saw how he celebrated at full-time, I’ll take that all day long. He’s a proper person and he should be pleased with his debut and being part of a winning performance.
“We got together on the pitch afterwards because we’re in separate changing rooms, and I wanted to make sure we got them all together after the game as a group, to remind them of what they’d just done in getting the three points. It’s not been easy on anybody but tonight, they did everything they needed to do to get us the points. Of course we could play better but tonight was about winning and I just wanted to remind them that that feeling of winning games is what we do this job for, and let’s have lots more of it. When you’ve knocked your pan in all week to get that win, relish it.
“Livingston will be a test on Sunday. They’ve got their identity back in the last couple of games, Gary Holt has said that, the work rate and the discipline of the team. They set out to get a point against Rangers and they got it by scrapping and working and you have to respect that. They’ve lost their talisman striker and they need to rely on other things, the way we do at the minute with Sam and Curtis out. Their energy and discipline is outstanding and it’s something we’re going to have to overcome. Hopefully we can address the number nine situation, get a couple more boys back involved, we’ve got options from the bench and we’ll be ready to go again on Sunday.
“We’ve looked at a few forward options, some have gone away from us, others are pretty close. We hope to land something over the next day or two, it’s been our focus with the injuries we’ve had, we’ve been working hard to address it. Sometimes your team is only as good as your number nine and tonight, you see boys looking up to play it forward and that presence isn’t there as an option. Matty Kennedy put a great ball through the box and there was nobody could get on the end of it. Everything gets harder without that number nine. Hopefully we can land something and if we do, I’ll be grateful for the support from the board on that. I’ve never managed a team where four centre-forward have been out injured so hopefully we can get some help before Sunday.”
