St Johnstone got their pride back against all-conquering Celtic, according to captain Dave Mackay.
If it hadn’t been for a world-class save from goalkeeper Craig Gordon, the Perth men would have had something more tangible to show for their efforts at the weekend.
Mackay’s last-minute scorching strike looked bound for the roof of the net, only for the Scotland man to better the reflex stop he had foiled Brian Graham with a second before.
A point would have been more than welcome to Saints, of course. But the main thing was that Tommy Wright’s side cast aside the disappointment of their Scottish Cup defence coming to a bitter end in Dumfries seven days before.
“I caught it well. Probably if I’d mis-hit it, it would have gone in,” Mackay reflected.
“It was a great reaction save from him, and that’s what happens when you’re a top-class goalkeeper. He wins you points, and that’s what he’s done today.
“We gave it a go but we just weren’t quite good enough.
“After last week, going out of the cup so tamely, we needed some sort of performance.
“Last week stung for a few days after. As holders, going out at an early stage isn’t what you want to happen. We let ourselves down badly and Queens deserved to go through.
“It was always going to be difficult to win the cup again, but we wanted to keep it longer than we did. We didn’t do enough to win the game, and the performance was disappointing.
“You only get one chance in the cup. It’s not like in the league, when there’s always next week.
“It was important we came back and at least put in a performance with positives. Against Celtic we did that.
“It’s two losses in a row, but the feeling in the dressing room is completely different.
“At least we gave it a go today. We needed a type of performance, a gritty performance and a battle. It was never going to be pretty on the pitch out there.
“But it was certainly an improvement on last week.”
It was win number eight in a row for Celtic, and the other seven have been pretty comfortable for the Glasgow side.
This one looked like falling into the same category when Leigh Griffiths gave the Hoops a 35 second lead that was three seconds quicker than at Firhill in midweek.
It was an awful goal from Saints’ point of view, and not just because of the timing of it. Nir Biton’s through-ball should have been cut out by Tam Scobbie, and Griffiths’ first-time finish was the type he rarely squanders.
When Stefan Johansen doubled Celtic’s advantage shortly after the break again Scobbie could have done better they looked to be in cruise control.
Plenty of others would have folded, but Saints fought back.
Michael O’Halloran set up an unexpected last 20 minutes with a point-blank finish after Gordon was caught out by a near-post touch from Chris Kane and presented it at the ex-Celtic player’s feet.
Then, there was the dramatic finale when Gordon first blocked a Graham header and, from the rebound, Mackay’s volley was touched over at full stretch.
It wasn’t hard for Mackay to identify where it had gone wrong for his team.
“The two goals were poor from our point of view,” he admitted.
“We kept saying we needed to keep it tight for as long as we could.
“You wanted to give yourself a chance until the end because Celtic aren’t used to that. They normally have games won by 60 minutes and can stroll through the last half an hour. Recently, anyway.
“Chris Kane was excellent when he came on, and was a real handful for the Celtic backline. They’re not used to playing against two up front so it was a different game for them.
“It certainly helped us get up the pitch that bit better and get in their faces and manage to squeeze up a little bit more, too.”
Saints may have dropped out of the top six, but Mackay believes that if Saturday’s display is repeated on a regular basis, they’ll be back there when the split is made.
He pointed out: “We’re certainly good enough. We’ve got the players to do it and we’ve done it the last three years.
“We know what it’s all about so there’s no reason we can’t get in there again.”
Perth boss Wright added: “We had to weather a storm but we did that and got back into the game.
“We could easily have got a draw in the end. The first save from Craig Gordon was good, but the second one was incredible.
“Overall, I’m pleased with the performance and if we take that into the next eight games I’m sure we’ll get enough to finish in the top six.”
If it hadn’t been for O’Halloran, Gordon would have recorded clean-sheet number nine on the bounce.
The fact that he has let one in at last wasn’t bothering him too much, though.
He commented: “I think everybody wants to try to keep a clean sheet. That’s the aim when we go out there.
“I know it’s not possible in every game and we will lose goals.
“I was well aware it would come to an end at some point, so we just tried to keep it going as long as possible.
“Now we’ll start again and see if we can get another one going.
Gordon had a save for Sunderland that has been called the best ever in the English Premier League. His one from Mackay rivalled it for quality.
“I’m not sure,” the former Hearts man said. “It’s for other people to decide that. I just try to keep the ball out of the net.
“It was good and it is always important when it leads to winning three points. I was happy with that as you could see at the time.
“The celebration is not like me, but I was disappointed after losing the goal and was determined not to lose another one.”
The Celtic winning streak is sure to get a severe test in their next match, a Europa League clash with Inter Milan at Parkhead on Thursday night.
Gordon said: “Celtic have come across big names in football before and done very well. We know we will have to be at our best, and a lot of people will have to be at the top of their game to get a result out of this one, but that’s a good challenge and one that we are excited about and ready to go with.
“The manager certainly wants us to attack but there will be moments when we have to defend as well. We will have to defend well.
“We were put under a bit of pressure today, towards the end, and managed to handle it after the goal.
“We know we are coming up against some top quality players on Thursday and at times will have to defend, but at the same time we want to cause problems of our own.”
enicolson@thecourier.co.uk