St Johnstone boss, Simo Valakari, has admitted that his team has started to feel sorry for itself. And if the Perth side are to stand any chance of staying the Premiership, they’ll have to kick that habit quickly and show more resilience than was on display in their 2-1 Tayside derby defeat to Dundee United. Saints got themselves in front through Makenzie Kirk.
But Glenn Middleton and Sam Dalby turned the match around early in the second half, with Valakari’s men not coming up with the sort of response the home support demanded. “I am getting a bit tired repeating myself,” he said. “We had some good stuff and too much not so good stuff.
“Do we need to be tougher? Definitely. “When you are in the situation we are and not getting results, it affects you but that’s how football works. “We can say: ‘Yes, we need to be tougher’ but we need to do it.
“You need to feel your pride is hurting because everyone is saying St Johnstone are a soft touch who lose goals for fun. “That needs to hurt you, it’s professional pride and you have to show it. “Did they feel sorry for themselves? Of course, that’s how it goes.
“But there’s no other option other than roll your sleeves up and go again. “Nobody else is feeling sorry for you, everyone else wants to kick us out. “The teams around us are looking at it thinking we’re out now, we only need to beat one team because St Johnstone are there.
“If we start feeling sorry for ourselves then it’s goodbye..
