St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright blamed the lack of a “killer touch” in front of goal as they were sent spinning out of the Betfred Cup last night.
Saints were hammered 3-0 at home by Partick Thistle to exit the competition at the last-16 stage – their first hurdle due to their Europa League involvement.
A penalty from Steven Lawless on 50 minutes was followed by strikes from Ryan Edwards and Chris Erskine to make it a bad night for the McDiarmid men.
Wright said: “We got what we deserved from the game.
“We had chances and probably created as many as them but I thought we were guilty of, at times, trying to walk the ball into the net.
“We didn’t pull the trigger and shoot.
“We took an extra pass in and around the box because we were getting into good positions.
“There was loads of effort but we lacked a killer touch in front of goal.”
Saints were up against it as soon as Steven Anderson conceded the penalty, an award that wasn’t contested by Wright.
“The first goal is always vital and once the defender goes to ground the referee is always going to give a penalty,” he added.
“I have no qualms about the decision.
“Then we missed chances: Ando (Anderson) missed a header and I’ll need to see that back because it looked like he was going to head it into the net; Joe (Shaughnessy) had a chance at the back post; Graham (Cummins) had a great chance too; and David (Wotherspoon) had one as well.
“The wonder goal made it 2-0 and that made it really difficult for us.”
