Tommy Wright is motivated by pride more than prize money as St Johnstone look to wrap up seventh place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
Around £60,000 is at stake as Saints bid to extend their one-point lead over Motherwell to four with a game to spare when the Steelmen visit Perth on Saturday.
And while that cash could come in handy during the summer transfer window, Wright is mainly concerned with reversing last season’s placings with the Lanarkshire side, who pipped them to seventh in 2017-18.
“It’s simple, we win the game and we are guaranteed seventh and that’s the incentive for the players, to finish it off,” the Saints manager said.
“We have had opportunities in recent games, we have dropped points to two wonder goals, two late goals have been costly.
“But, overall, if we keep performing how we are doing, and I can see improvement in certain players as well, that all bodes well. We are going against a side who have done extremely well since the winter break and it will be a difficult game but the incentive is there.
“The money is one part of it and it benefits the club, but when the split comes the motivation should be to finish best of the rest if you can. I know it’s little consolation in terms of not playing in the top six and pushing for Europe, but it’s still something to aim for and something we can achieve.”
Meanwhile, Wright stated that contract talks with Blair Alston were not imminent. Reports claimed Saints had opened discussions over a new deal for the midfielder, who has been linked with Hamilton and Dundee.
“We haven’t made any decision on Blair,” Wright said. “We haven’t opened any conversations about contracts, simply as Blair hasn’t played a lot of football this season. So that’s something that will have to be solved in the next two weeks.
“Blair knows the situation. We are going to wait until the end of the season and assess it.”
