Tommy Wright is at a loss to explain how St Johnstone can go from the highs of their comeback success against Hibernian to the lows of defeat at home to Kilmarnock.
A thrilled Wright blew kisses to the Easter Road crowd after Jason Kerr’s stoppage-time equaliser secured a 2-2 draw against Hibs last weekend.
Coming after their second-half recovery sealed the same scoreline against Livingston the previous week, Saints – boosted by the return of fan favourite Stevie May – approached the visit of Killie with confidence.
However, they succumbed to a dispiriting defeat that consigned them to the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership table after Scotland full-back Stephen O’Donnell forced in the only goal of a 1-0 win for the visitors five minutes from the break.
He said: “I’m frustrated and I’m at a loss how they can go from where they were last week, dominating possession. The tempo to our play was way below what I was expecting in the first half.
“I don’t know what it is at home. I don’t know whether it’s nerves, but it can’t be when they can play in front of 16,000 last week and then whatever it was this week – nowhere near 16,000.
“We don’t start well at home.
“(The Kilmarnock winner) was a counter-attacking goal that we should have prevented. It’s poor from us.
“In the second half, I thought we were much better in terms of possession. They dropped deep and tried to make it difficult and were a danger on the counter.
“But we probably didn’t create enough with the possession we had to get anything out of the game.”
He added: “He had a slight groin problem so we weren’t sure up until the last minute whether we were going to play him or not.
“He got on the end of a couple of things and he’s had a couple of shots, so I think you can see he’ll be good for us.”
The Italian said: “I am very happy, because it’s the first win. My team played very well.
“Playing away against St Johnstone isn’t easy but everyone played well. We deserved this result.”
