May says a sharper finish can provide a happy ending for Saints

St Johnstone striker Stevie May admits they need to be more clinical after he missed a penalty in a 2-2 draw with Ross County in Dingwall.

May saw his spot-kick saved by Ross Laidlaw before netting his first goal since returning from Aberdeen to cancel out Joe Chalmers’ early opener.

Matty Kennedy put Saints ahead from 25 yards early in the second half but Blair Spittal levelled with a free-kick midway through the half, and the visitors missed a succession of chances to earn their first Ladbrokes Premiership win of the season.

May told Saints TV: “We are all frustrated with the result. I think we did more than enough to get the three points but just lacked that little bit of a clinical finish at the end.

“We had large spells of possession and dominated the ball and did play well throughout the game, a little bit slack on both sides again.

“There’s definitely positives but it’s a hard one to take not to get three points.”

May and his team in general looked visibly lifted after the forward netted his first goal since Boxing Day.

“Considering the results we have had recently, we played with great confidence, which was good to see, the way we were knocking the ball about and creating chances at will at the end of the first half and even throughout the second half,” he said.

“We just needed that one more to go in or not to give away that free-kick, although it’s a great free-kick to equalise.

“Even then in the last five minutes we had more chances.

“So it is a tough one to take, it’s something we need to work on, being that little bit more clinical and putting the game out of sight.”

Ross County co-manager Stuart Kettlewell was happy to take a point which kept his team in fifth place, level on 12 points with Aberdeen.

“We felt we were poor in comparison to what we have been in the last couple of weeks but that said we still got two goals, the players stuck with it and you could see we were trying to win the game right up until the death,” he said.

“So there are no complaints from us. It takes us into an international break where we feel as if the club is in a good position, we are in a decent spot in the league and we are on a four-game unbeaten run, which is nice.”

FourFourTwo Staff

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