‘It was inept, not good enough’: Tommy Wright rages after St Johnstone beaten by Aberdeen

THE visibly angered St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright criticised his side after their 3-0 defeat to Aberdeen, insisting it was the worst performance he had seen in his four years in charge.

The visitors had changed formations in their 2-1 victory over Hamilton Accies last week, and continued with their new 3-5-2 formation against the Dons, but Wright insists that was not a factor in the defeat.

Adam Rooney netted a hat-trick for the Dons, scoring twice in the first half before adding a late penalty.

“Look at the goals we’ve conceded,” he seethed. “A free-kick, the centre-backs drop deep. Three of them with one striker to look after. They don’t do it. A corner kick. It’s nothing to do with systems.

“When players don’t pass the ball, don’t work hard for each other, when they give a quality side time on the ball, that’s what happens. You get grubbed. We were grubbed today.

“There’s a lot of words I could use for that performance. It’s probably the worst 45 minutes I’ve had in nearly 200 games here.

“There was a lack of everything. A lack of energy, a lack of quality. It was inept, not good enough, and they know about it. They know about it. That was nowhere near good enough.

“I’m taking nothing away from Aberdeen, but that was not good enough. None of them spoke in the dressing room so I take it they agree with me.”

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was a much happier man than his counterpart, insisting that over the last two games his side have answered any questions that were asked of them in the wake of their Betfred Cup exit at the hands of Motherwell.

He said “There were aspects of the game today that we continued today.

“We demanded more shots and more crosses. You’ve got Rooney in the team and there’s no point having him there if you don’t get crosses into the box. We managed to get enough crosses to keeper him and Stevie May interested and carry a threat.

“I think today we got the balance between attack and defence right. We kept the back door shut and looked comfortable within that, and we managed to get our natural attacking game going as well.

“What pleases me most is we’ve responded over the last couple of games to answer – to myself as much as anyone – that we can defend with more aggression, anger and determination than we’ve shown at certain stages this season.”