Hamilton 2-4 St Johnstone: Wright revels in second-half showing

St Johnstone move up to fourth in the Premiership with a victory in Lanarkshire

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright praised his side for putting a poor first-half aside to overpower Hamilton 4-2 at New Douglas Park.

"Hamilton settled better on the pitch than we did," he told BBC Scotland.

"We got a good goal, the first bit of quality we showed in the first-half, a great header from Graham Cummins.

"We needed to slow it down, pass it better, and, second-half, we controlled the ball to give us opportunities to score three more goals."

Cummins added to his header by smashing in a loose ball after the interval, while David Wotherspoon and Michael O'Halloran added to the visitors' tally.

Jesus Garcia Tena replied with a free-kick and a penalty for the home side.

The victory moves the Perth side up to fourth in the Premiership but Wright, who rested top scorer Steven MacLean, is not setting any targets.

"We don't go out and say we are going to be a top six or a top four club," added Wright. "We just take each game as it comes.

"But we normally get stronger as the season goes on. Hopefully that will be the case this year."

St Johnstone have now won eight of their last 11 games, although the manager is keen to keep feet on the ground.

"What we have done is out ourselves in a really great position and we move on to Kilmarnock next weekend and finish that off before the international break. We'll not be getting carried away with it."

Canning started his first game of the season for Accies

In contrast, it was a frustrating day for Hamilton player-manager Martin Canning - who made his first start of the season in central defence - after watching his side dominate the first-half.

"I thought in the first-half we were excellent," he said. "We dominated the ball, which I was hoping we would do.

"I thought we were very unlucky to go in 1-0 down at half-time. Second-half they started better than us which was disappointing.

"I thought we lost that little bit of swagger we have had about ourselves at the start of the season. We got back on top of it when we scored those two late goals. But overall it was a disappointing day.

"I said to the boys that for the standards we have set ourselves as a team and as individuals I think some people didn't perform to their best."