Dave Mackay didn’t expect to hear under the radar St Johnstone being spoken of as potentially splitting Hearts and Aberdeen in this season’s Premiership by their manager.
But the Perth skipper, who signed a new contract earlier this week, has taken it as a show of faith in how Tommy Wright views hsi team.
“I was a wee bit surprised to hear the manager talking of pushing for second or third place,” Mackay admitted.
“But it shows the confidence he has in the squad.
“He has built an incredible squad here. It’s not just about our starting XI. Look at the quality on the bench. It shows the strength in depth we have now.
“In years gone by if a couple of key players were missing we’d struggle to replace them. But not any more. A guy like John Sutton is hardly getting a sniff. That’s not his fault. It is down to how the other guys are playing. It is just so hard for him to get into the team.
“Kano (Chris Kane) had to bide his time but he has come in and scored in the last two games. Tam Scobbie will feel unlucky to have missed out against United.
“So it is great to be part of such a strong squad.”
Mackay has known nothing but good times in his Saints career since signing for Derek McInnes, but he believes the class of 2015/16 can top the lot.
“Without a doubt this is the best squad we have had in my time here,” he pointed out.
“We might have had better individual players in previous times but possibly it is also the best team.
“We have lost a few more goals than we’d have liked. But we have shown we can come back from going behind.
“We have got 13 points from matches where we have lost the first goal. That is a great tally, although obviously we’d love to be leading in games.
“We know we have goals in the team and from a variety of sources. We are the second highest scorers in the league this season.
“Maybe before we’d be relying on Stevie May or Fran Sandaza for goals but now we have Macca, Graham Cummins and Michael O’Halloran, Kano has come in and scored goals, and we have midfielders chipping in as well. We are creating loads of chances.”
Satisfaction with the goals being scored doesn’t mean Mackay is happy at just one clean sheet for the season.
He said: “In past seasons the clean sheet record here has been incredible so it has been frustrating as defender to have lost more goals than usual.
“But to achieve them you do have to carry a bit of luck because no matter who you play teams will always get a chance or two.
“We weren’t making as many individual mistakes but maybe we were getting away with it at times. They say the hardest thing in football is to score but I’d say it is to keep a clean sheet.”
Mackay knows he made the right decision to undergo hip surgery at the end of the last campaign.
He said: “There has been no problem with the hip. It has been fantastic since the surgery. Last year I was taking injections to ease the pain but it was hard to get going, even in training.
“It’s great to be pain-free in training and in games.”