St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright believes it will take something extra special for Danny Swanson to be denied the goal of the season accolade this season after his strike in midweek.
The midfielder’s superbly-struck volley was enough for Saints to take maximum points at the expense of league leaders Celtic on Wednesday night, and Wright insisted yesterday that it will take some beating.
“Danny’s goal has to be right up there as the leading contender for goal of the season at this stage,” he explained.
“It is a controlled finish. He hasn’t just taken a swing at it and blasted it.
“I spoke to Celtic goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods after the game and he said Craig Gordon maybe didn’t see it until late.
“But I don’t think even if a keeper of Gordon’s class had seen it that he’d have got anywhere near it.
“Danny hit it with the oustide of the boot so it was always going away from the keeper.
“He almost placed it there from more than 25 yards.
“But he has done it in the past and we have seen it in training. It’s not a fluke.
“I’m really pleased for Danny because he has had a difficult start because of niggling injuries since coming up on loan.
“Even on the day of the game he was ill and we were concerned if he was going to be fit or not.
“We left the decision down to Danny and he showed he has real character.
“He felt he wanted to play and we just kept trying to get another five minutes out of him.
“He was running on empty when we replaced him with Lee Croft.
“But a moment of real quality capped a quality all-round team performance.
“It is a massive win in terms of getting three points at this stage of the season but also because I suspect none of the teams around us thought we would win at Celtic Park.
“They would reckon it was a game in hand which we wouldn’t win.
“They might have thought we would go there, take a tanking and it wouldn’t help our goal difference.
“Instead, it gives us three clean sheets in a row and a huge psychological lift going into the games before the split.”
Wright described his team’s performance as “perfect” in terms of what they needed from the game, although he still rates the 2-0 win at Dundee United as his team’s best overall so far this term.
He continued: “Celtic was a different type of performance because we had to defend for longer periods.
“But I have been there and it has been backs to the wall for the majority of the game.
“This wasn’t like that.
“Even Ronny Deila said after the game that we defended really well and didn’t give them a lot of clear cut opportunities.
“We got the balance right between defending and posing a threat ourselves.
“They are a tactically aware group of players.
“We talked about the shape we wanted work with.
“The key I feel was the amount of possession we had.
“It was around 45% so we kept the ball well and I think we have players who are comfortable on the ball.
“That can take the heat out of the game.”