The emergence of young winger Craig Thomson has been a positive for St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright to take out of their recent winless run.
The 20-year-old has made an impact off the bench against Motherwell and Kilmarnock and looks set to get more game time in the coming weeks after impressing his boss.
“Craig Thomson has done really well,” Wright said. “I’ve been pleased with him.
“He’s got loads of pace and is really direct, so he can add something to the team when he plays.
“Everything he’s done so far has been a plus.”
Meanwhile, Wright does not believe a heavy McDiarmid Park pitch was a mitigating factor in failing to win at the weekend.
“Our pitch has taken a hammering because of the amount of rain we’ve had,” he said.
“It hadn’t stopped raining for about three weeks.
“But the pitch wasn’t why we lost to Kilmarnock because we had enough chances to win the game.
“We still got into good areas during the 90 minutes so it’s too easy to pick on the pitch.
“Of course, hopefully we get a spell of drier weather and that lets us get it in a better condition.
“But nobody here is making excuses for going out of the cup.”
Wright added: “People are looking at us not scoring in the last four matches but I’m not concerned about that.
“I watch all the games back and the amount of chances we’ve created has been incredible.”