St Johnstone’s Richard Foster was left ruing the loss of the late goal that cost his side a point at Ibrox on Wednesday night and the chance to go level in the Premiership with fourth-placed Hearts.
Saints had looked dead and buried when Rangers took a 2-0 lead but sub David Wotherspoon pulled one back for Tommy Wright’s men.
Then after the home side had Rob Kiernan sent off, St Johnstone equalised through skipper Steven Anderson. It looked like they would hold on to secure a valuable point but Rangers’ Emerson Hyndman dealt a killer blow in stoppage time to leave Saints devastated.
However, Foster insists the aim remains the same for St Johnstone this season and that’s to finish in the top six and then see where it takes them.
The 31-year-old said: “You lose goals late on and it’s easy to dwell on that. But I think it’s good we have a break to get it out of our heads and have a good week of training next week ahead of Dundee at home.
“We lost a very soft goal at the end. I think we have about six men in the box and it falls for their man. It’s an absolute sickener.
“We have a little break now and will take the positives from the Rangers game and cut out the silly goals.
“We’ve got a bit of a cushion and are still in a good position. We’ve never once in this dressing-room got above ourselves.
“I know there have been chances to get closer to Rangers and go beyond Hearts. It’s difficult for us to take, especially after coming in and finding out that Hearts have been beaten again.
“But our goal at the start of the season was to get top six – that has not changed.
“Once we secure top six then we can see if we can push up the league after that. We’ll move onto the next game. We need to try and push on and get us back up the league.”
Foster admitted the loss of the late, late goal was a “disaster” and he insists Saints should have been streetwise enough to have run down the clock.
He added: “It’s disappointing. Coming back from two goals down at Ibrox, you need to see the game out, especially with Rangers down to 10 men.
“You can either push for the winner or you take the point. We probably should have sat in and taken the draw.
“I thought first half Rangers were the better team and we could have been two or three down. But we hung in there and had a great chance before they made it 2-0.
“David scored a great goal and they got a man sent off, so we got a lift from that. Once Ando scores we need to see the game out.
“When you lose goals there are always mistakes. You can be a bit too picky and pick out too many faults here and there. If you lose a goal everyone is disappointed – if you lose one in the last minute it’s a disaster.
“Games against Rangers at Ibrox are not ones where you always say you should be getting three points but the way the game panned out, we should have taken a point.
“When you put in a good performance and score two goals, you expect to get something from the game.
“I thought we passed the ball well in spells and the movement was very good. We created chances and put dangerous balls into the box to put them under pressure.”
