St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari felt his team got what they deserved yesterday at Ibrox as Rangers got a comfortable 4-0 win to stop the decent run Saints had been on before this weekend.
St Johnstone were sitting 5th before the game on Saturday after remaining undefeated in the league since the tight 1-0 loss to Celtic back on the 9th September. However Valakari felt his team didn’t deserve anything from the game yesterday
He said: “No complaints about the result, Rangers were very strong first half, they put us under a lot of pressure, they scored the goal. Second half we knew we would get our moments and we got our momentum. First 15 minutes we’re in the 1-0 situation but logic of the game is if you don’t take your chance the other team will score and they did that and then the game was all over.”
He was next asked about Kai Fotheringham’s red card for his challenge on Nico Raskin where Fotheringham won the ball but caught Raskin high with his studs with the follow through from the sliding tackle.
Valakari replied: “I would say it is unlucky, Kai takes the ball but the follow through is high. It is easy to give the red card so no complaints there.”
Then there was a question about Josh Fowler who was subbed off at half-time after missing a good chance in the first half.
Valakari said: “Everything is ok, all the changes were just tactical and he always tried to do something but you don’t get better chances in big games than we got and you have to take them. Or you have to ask something of the goalkeeper, force him to make the save. So that’s the kind of disappointment about it.”
He was then asked about his team’s chances in the game if one sticks in his mind as one they should have taken.
He answered: “No, I really enjoyed how we played it was our fearless football, going forward and putting the ball in the box. There wasn’t one chance but the pressure being there was ok and I hoped we could get something and score a goal here but a top opponent took their chance.”
He was lastly asked about his subs and getting minutes into the legs of players who haven’t played as much as they would have liked.
Valakari said: “Yes of course, it was good to get minutes for Logan Chalmers and Danny Schmidt and seeing different players on the pitch but at that moment I just needed the substitutes to give us something different and as I said for the first 15 minutes were good but you can’t play good for 15 minutes and not for the other 75 at these places and hope to get something you have to be good to top performers for 90 minutes but today we weren’t so.”
St Johnstone return to Perth on Wednesday night the 28th October where they will welcome Motherwell to McDairmaid Park where both teams will look to win after losses at the weekend.
