IT'S nothing new to hear players praise team-mates. But as far as pouring the plaudits on Michael O'Halloran goes, the St Johnstone winger surely deserves every bit of it.
Once more the talented 24-year-old came to the fore by leading Tommy Wright's side to their first league win of the Ladbrokes Premiership season at the weekend, coming courtesy of their transformation in the second-half which was rounded off by striker Steven MacLean's double.
O'Halloran has been the undoubted bright light for the Perth club who prior to Saturday's win over their 10-man opponents had failed in four previous attempts to get off the mark.
The former Bolton wide-man is capable of scaring opposition defences with his pace and skill which visitors Motherwell ultimately found impossible to handle on Saturday.
It was demonstrated best in 79 minutes when O'Halloran sold Joe Chalmers, Motherwell's hapless substitute, on the way to squaring for MacLean who was on hand to prod home the winner from just a few yards.
Such performances have caught the eye and David Wotherspoon, an inspired second-half substitute who had a hand in MacLean's 63rd minute equaliser, is sure defenders throughout the top-flight are now fearful of going up against O'Halloran when he's in such fine form.
“He has been electric,” Wotherspoon said. “I’m going to call him Magic Mike from now on. We just give the ball to him and he causes lots of problems for defences.
“He was going down the outside a lot then finally he cut inside and set up the winner. He needs to mix it up but he’s very dangerous because of his pace and his power. He’s actually not a training sort of player.
“He turns up and does it in the games. When he is in full flight it’s hard to get the ball off him and he helped get us the win. I think defenders are scared of him now.”
The home side showed character to overturn Louis Moult's 11th minute opener, with MacLean's double coming before Jake Taylor picked up his second yellow card – for diving – late on which put paid to any hopes the visitors had of returning to Perth with anything.
For a side who've consistently performed so well in recent seasons, St Johnstone's obvious anxiety at playing in front of their own supporters seems rather odd but Wotherspoon is hoping this result can act as a springboard for better things to come.
“The boys are buzzing to have that winning feeling,” admitted Wotherspoon. “We are all happy and personally I was happy at my performance. But it was a team performance and we showed great character to come back to win.
“We are making it hard for ourselves and I think it’s a wee bit down to nerves and how we started the season. The boys were a wee bit nervous before the game but towards the end we were more settled.
“I don’t know why we are nervous. If we concede a goal early it’s hard. We just need to calm down a bit because we’ve been causing our own problems. We’ve got a tough week ahead of us – Celtic away – and it’s good to approach that game with a win.”
For Motherwell, it was a mixed bag of emotions after such a promising start to end the game so disastrously.
And summer signing Moult confessed he ought to have put Ian Baraclough's side in cruise control shortly after giving them the lead, failing instead to beat Alan Mannus, the Saints keeper, with the goal gaping.
“We should have been further ahead than we were at half time – and I was guilty for that," conceded Englishman Moult. “I’ve got to score with the one-on-one. I hold my hands up. It’s still going through my mind and it will do so for at least the next couple of days."
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