Managers Post St Johnstone

24/12/11: JM- "Barrowman got a decent half chance but we made the mistakes for the first goal again. It knocked the stuffing out of us for a ten minute spell.

Jim McIntyre was disappointed with the outcome of the Christmas Eve match against St Johnstone especially after an encouraging first thirty minutes.

"I thought we were the team on the ascendancy if anything. It was quite an even game and we looked the more likely. Barrowman got a decent half chance but we made the mistakes for the first goal again. It knocked the stuffing out of us for a ten minute spell.

"We started the second half well again and again it was another mistake. I am saying the same things all the time and it is really difficult to recover when you keep doing the same things."

Chris Smith was making his first appearance of the season and there no doubt an element of rustiness about his match fitness:-

"There was a swirling wind out there as well for the first one" claimed Macca. "There is no doubt that it is difficult but he has just got to dust himself down and get on with it. He is a good keeper but he has made a couple of mistakes today but he wasn't the only one.

"When you make a mistake you just have to get on with it. It is more about the rest of the game rather than worrying about the mistake. That is exactly what he has tried to do."

The inability to win a home match by Christmas is the kind of form that can dent confidence. The gaffer claimed that lack of wins and losing games in the same fashion does exactly that:-

"It is our job to lift them for Motherwell on Wednesday and that's what we will do when we are back in on Monday. I will re-iterate that until we cut the mistakes out then we are going to struggle to win games."

The Manager had tried to alter his luck by shuffling his starting line up a bit:-

"We had the two full backs back and we felt that we wanted to go back to a back four. If there have been mistakes made then you need to look at changing personnel. I have not had personnel to make changes so I made a couple today. I defy anybody to say that in the first half hour that we weren't slightly the better team but the goal changes everything."

Jim gave a quick resume of the injury situation at the Club:-

"Kevin Rutkiewicz is making very good progress but he has not played for six months. It is going to take him a few games to get up to speed. He will join in training next week all being well. Steven Bell is longer term obviously; Nick Phinn is doing light jogging but is a few weeks away; McCann is the same, McDougall the same both a few weeks away as well. Craig Easton is back fit but just wasn't selected today; he is another one who has been out a long time and I feel that we need to get a reserve game."

The Board have indicated that they would permit adding to the squad but Macca said that he had been told nothing in terms of numbers:-

"I have not got a figure in terms of what I have to spend. they are trying hard to raise funds in difficult times so they have to be applauded for that. I will just keep working behind the scenes and look for players who can strengthen us."

 St Johnstone Manager Steve Lomas felt that it was important for his side to bounce back after a run of three defeats.

"I don't think we played any better than we have done in the last three games. Dunfermline were where we were in the last three games where individual mistakes cost us. As a manager you can't legislate for that. I am delighted but there is more in the locker from the boys, and I have told them that.

"We are satisfied and delighted with three nil and a clean sheet but I believe that we can play better than that. We will have to if we want to kick on."