St Johnstone haven’t consciously tried to tinker with the formula that brought them so much success last season, according to winger Lee Croft.
But the former Manchester City man knows that, having lost it, they have to rediscover it quickly.
The start of this season has seen the Perth men lose their hard-to-beat hallmark, with soft goals becoming more of a consistent trait than shut-outs.
Saturday was another case in point when what should have been a certain draw, and possible victory, against St Mirren at McDiarmid Park was thrown away with defending the Saints manager described as “criminal”.
“I don’t know what you put it down to,” Croft admitted.
“It’s not a case of us not wanting to have the mentality of last season. It’s just not worked out that way. We need to get that back, for sure, and play with confidence going forward as well.
“It’s not just the defence. It’s the whole team. We all defend together.
“It’s not been great for a few weeks, bar the cup game against Killie. We’ve got a break now and we need to put it right when we come back.
“In the second half we were in the ascendancy. We were pushing for the winner and it looked as though we were going to get it.
“That’s the way things have been going for us, though. They’ve hit us on the break and got the winner themselves.
“We’ve got to be a bit more sensible when we’re piling men forward. That’s happened to us a couple of times now. Teams have broken on us, and attacking has cost us goals.”
The dynamic play of Croft, when he came on after about an hour, was one of the causes of the Saints’ comeback.
His personal objective when the season resumes after the international break will be to hold down a starting place.
“I’ve been in and out of the team this season,” he said.
“We all want to play every week but you need to put in the performances to warrant that.”
Croft added: “We’d rather be going into the break on a high, but we can’t change that now. It’s disappointing we don’t have a game for two weeks to put it right but it gives us some time in training to work on things.
“When we come back we’ve got some tough games. The only game we’ve won in five is in the cup. We want our league form back to where it should be.”