Tuesday 7 April 2015 23:14, UK
Ross County manager Jim McIntyre felt his side fully deserved to beat St Johnstone despite requiring a late goal to do so.
Liam Boyce scored the only goal of the game at Global Energy Stadium to secure a 1-0 win for County, their seventh victory in eight games.
The home side had the majority of the possession and goalscoring chances but the result was in the balance until very late in the day.
But McIntyre said his team were worthy winners, although he admitted they could have put the contest to bed earlier in the evening.
"We had to grind that out tonight, it was a really hard-fought game,” he said. “But I think in the end we deserved the three points.
"We were just a wee bit wasteful with the final pass, we spoke about that at half-time to try and improve the end product.
"The determination of the players to keep doing the right things and get into the right areas eventually paid off."
McIntyre singled out match-winner Boyce for special praise, saying: "I'm absolutely thrilled with Liam Boyce, he's been such a big part of the run we've been on, laying on chances for others. It was fitting he got the winner today."
Saints manager Tommy Wright felt his should have done better in defence, even though their goalkeeper Alan Mannus did not have much to do.
Wright, whose side remain in fifth spot in the Scottish Premiership following the loss, said: "There was no surprise how they were going to approach the game and I thought we dealt with it fairly well all night.
"Alan (Mannus) had only one save to make, we've had to defend corners, balls into the box but we gave them too many opportunities to do that by giving away too many cheap free-kicks.
"It looked like it would drift out to be a 0-0 but that didn't happen. We were probably a little bit unlucky with a couple of clearances – we didn't clear our lines and the pressure built and they eventually got the goal."
