St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright hails strike duo

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright praised the striking partnership of Stevie May and Nigel Hasselbaink in their 3-1 defeat of Kilmarnock.

Hasselbaink opened the scoring for the Saints in the McDiarmid Park match, but May twice extended the lead - once from the spot - to seal the win.

"I hope they continue to score, it's a great little partnership that's developing," said Wright.

"Nigel and Steven have great pace, and they took their goals well."

Hasselbaink's fine solo effort in the 24th minute game St Johnstone a well-deserved lead and just seven minutes later May fired in another to double their advantage.

The Perth striker then converted from the spot after Michael Gardyne tripped Chris Millar in the penalty area.

Despite the winning margin, Wright felt his side struggled in the early stages of the game and took time to find their feet before establishing a commanding lead.

"I didn't think we started the game too well," said Wright. "After that, when we passed it a little bit better and moved the ball from side to side, I thought we were excellent for large parts of the game."

Wright singled out the obvious contribution of May and Hasselbaink as key to his side's recent run of form, but urged the club's fans to temper their expectations as the season progresses.

"Sometimes you get bad fortune, like Stevie MacLean being out for a while, you need someone to step in there and we thought Nigel would be the perfect foil from Steven and it's worked really well.

"We had some really good performances, but when we were on top, we weren't scoring goals, particularly early on in the season, but now we're taking our chances.

Stevie's in unbelievable form and it's good that Nigel is chipping in along with him.

"We're really pleased with how things are going, but it's only 13 games, so we're not getting carried away."

Asked whether May's form could see him could scale the heights of professional football, Wright insisted the striker has every necessary characteristic to be a great success in the game and hoped he would continue to make a bold impression.

"He knows that there's still things to improve and that's the beauty about him - he realises he still has a while to go in the game," said Wright.

"He's a very level-headed lad, he works really hard at his game and he hasn't given me a minute's problem since I've started working with him.

"We're really pleased with him, and I hope he does very well in the game and goes to the very top, because he certainly has the ability to do that."