To most observers, St Johnstone goalkeeper Alan Mannus put in a man of the match performance to secure three points for the Perth side in Paisley at the weekend.
There were a string of fine second half saves from the Northern Irishman as the hosts pushed hard for an equaliser.
But Mannus revealed that notoriously hard to please team-mate, Steven Anderson, was still able to pick a hole in his display.
“Ando was shouting at me that I should have caught the ball after one of their free kicks,” he explained.
“I made my mind up early. Their players were chasing me down, and in the conditions I decided to punch it.
“He’s pretty grumpy and likes to complain, but we got away with it.”
You wouldn’t have predicted at half-time that Mannus would turn out to be the hero, as he was a virtual spectator in the first 45.
If not in total control at 1-0 Saints were certainly extremely comfortable.
But the struggling home side were transformed after the break and there must have been at least half-a-dozen fine stops from the former Linfield man.
The pick of them was a reflex save at the back post just after the hour mark to keep out a bullet of a header from half-time substitute Callum Ball.
Mannus reflected: “Obviously I like making saves but it’s more meaningful when it’s for a win, and a clean sheet as well.”
And it wasn’t just Anderson who wasn’t entirely satisfied with his performance.
Mannus is his own biggest critic.
“When you take away the saves I don’t actually think I had a good game. I wasn’t happy with a lot of things,” he insisted.
“I don’t need to go into detail. That’s the life of a goalkeeper. We’re never happy, I guess.”
He may never be happy with his own 90 minutes, but Mannus is certainly happy with the team’s form graph.
Five games unbeaten, and four of them wins, is a run that has taken Saints equal on points with seventh-placed Dundee, and just one behind Kilmarnock in sixth, who they play on Saturday.
In short, they are looking once again like the team that has made top-six football habitual over the last few seasons.
Mannus noted: “In the first half I thought we were excellent, and not so good in the second. Same as last week.
“When we were talking in the showers Frazer (Wright) said he’d rather win a game like that than a 3-0.
“And I said to him, how many games have we won like that in the last two or three years where our backs have been against the wall almost and it’s been about defending and working hard.
“It’s the St Johnstone way, I guess. We seem to be quite good at it.
“When we were in the middle of that bad patch not so long ago we’d have taken anything to get results again.
“Even though we could have done better in the second half in terms of keeping the ball and stuff like that, we did what we had to do.
“They made more chances than us in the second half but we saw it out.”
He added: “When we were on that bad run it was constantly on your mind.
“You’d be sitting at home and it was impossible to not think about it.
“It’s great to not have that to worry about at the moment.
“We can relax a bit now.”
Mannus, Anderson, Wright, Dave Mackay and Brian Easton have got that “thou shall not pass” look about them again, and that’s exactly how Mannus likes it.
“They just love getting their head in there and throwing themselves in front of the ball,“ he pointed out.
“They’re big ugly defenders and that’s what they’re good at. I love having them in front of me because I know they do a job like that. And hopefully they’re happy with me in front of them.
“Frazer and Ando are as good as a lot of centre-halves in this league and the full-backs are consistently good as well.
“We’ve been a good unit over the last few years and hopefully that will continue.”
If the statistics are starting to look very appealing for Saints as a team, the same is undoubtedly the case for Michael O’Halloran as an individual.
It was his eighth minute goal that won the match a deflected strike from just outside the box and the former Bolton forward has now got five in as many matches.
O’Halloran nearly scored his second with a glancing header midway through the first half, and James McFadden also narrowly missed the target after he attempted a lob of keeper Mark Ridgers.
Even though Mannus was a busy man in the second half, it wasn’t all about him from a Saints point of view, as at the other end Brian Graham struck the base of the post with a low shot and he also had an attempt on the angle well saved by Ridgers.
Saints boss Tommy Wright said: “We were in total control in the first half but gave them too many opportunities in the second half, which has been a bit of a pattern for us.
“But having said that, we had the opportunities to make it two or three ourselves. We probably just about deserved the three points.
“I’ve got to be happy with the overall performance and the clean sheet. We’re going in the right direction but to be unbeaten after losing five is a credit to the players for turning things round.”
St Mirren’s wretched run their last win was at McDiarmid months ago goes on.
Some Buddies’ fans have been calling for manager Tommy Craig to be sacked, but it can’t be said that in this game his players weren’t giving their all for him.
And Kenny McLean believes they can take heart, if not points, from Saturday.
He said: “If Tommy’s here next year, or in two years’ time, I can guarantee the boys will be giving 100 per cent. That’s just the changing room we have got.
“We owe it to him for all the work he puts in and the trust he puts in us. We need to get behind him and that’s what we’ve been doing – and that’s what we will continue to do.
“We were unlucky to go in 1-0 down at half-time. It was a deflected goal and it was unlucky. But Tommy got us up for it and we played some decent stuff and created some chances, which is more than we have done in previous weeks. So if we can kick on from that and get some results we will be fine.”
Craig added: “We weren’t brilliant but the players showed bags of effort. It’s another defeat and disappointment but we’ll start again on Monday and I can base my whole week on what they showed me today.”