Graham Cummins was happy to put himself through the ordeal of analysing a big moment against Aberdeen that went wrong, if it means improving as a striker.
But, after watching re-run after re-run of a one-on-one that didn’t work out last Saturday, the St Johnstone forward admits it would be nice to view a goal or two and a Perth win when he gets round to seeing tonight’s match against Dundee.
With the score at 2-0 to the Dons just before half-time, the Irishman failed to take advantage of being through on keeper Scott Brown.
And Cummins now feels he’ll be in a better position to make sure he scores if something similar happens at Dens Park.
“I’ve watched the chance I missed against Aberdeen back a few times,” the former Preston North End man said. “In fact it has been a lot more than a few!
“I thought at the time he might bring me down because I saw him coming out, but I took the ball far too wide.
“So I watched it several times trying to figure out what I did wrong and what I should be doing better.
“I have spoken to the coaching staff about it and even the goalkeeping coach to see if from their point of view.
“Paul Mathers told me that the keeper was never going to bring me down, so that was interesting to hear it from a goalie’s perspective.
“I’m not usually one for watching painful things back but on occasions like this I think it’s helpful because you want to improve all the time.
“Nobody is perfect so you always have to take on advice and try to do better the next time.
“This game is on the telly this weekend so it would be nice to get a goal and maybe watch it back just the once!”
Cummins is still waiting to get his first goal since coming back from injury a few weeks ago.
And there would be no better occasion than tonight to do it.
“I need to get scoring again because my pals back home have been giving me a lot of grief about it,” the Irishman said.
“The television games are the only ones they really get a chance to see me in, so I know a few of them will be watching.
“As a striker you are judged on goals and it’s my aim to be getting back among them again.
“You go into every game looking to score and there wouldn’t be a better time to do it than Friday night.”
He might not be back on the goal trail yet but Cummins is happy with the progress he has made since returning from his hamstring injury.
“I’m still not 100% back to where I was but I’m getting there,” he said.
“When you have an injury like I did you can’t do full work when you’re rehabbing so you do lose fitness.
“So you need the minutes under your belt and I’m getting that after playing in a few games recently.
“There is nothing like games because the match pace, tempo and aggression is completely different to anything else.
“I always think you need five or six games in a row before you get your fitness back.”