The rapidity of St Johnstone’s Premiership collapse has been as alarming as the scale of it.
Pretty much all season results have been weighted more towards bad than good.
But up until the start of December and the trip to Dens Park, you could still put together a case for an uplift in fortunes over the last few weeks of the calendar year that didn’t stretch credulity to breaking point.
The impressive first halves – and positive results – against Hearts and Dundee United were still fresh in the memory; Saints acquitted themselves pretty well at Hampden Park against Celtic; and had Craig Bryson not got himself sent off when they were 1-0 up, they may well have beaten Hibs.
The seeds of the mess Saints now find themselves in were sown in the summer.
That is beyond debate.
However, the seismic slump in terms of relegation form and results – and, for the moment at least, the season-defining one – has been a December phenomenon.
❌Unfair Dundee had to play with depleted squad
🔵Callum Davidson needs break to fix St Johnstone
🟢Celtic will emerge stronger in January
🟠Van Veen's found 'good home' at Motherwell
🔷Rangers have squad 'who can win a title'Derek McInnes reflects on the Boxing Day results 👇 pic.twitter.com/E912BB4cF5
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 27, 2021
Six defeats this month have taken Saints from touching distance of the top half of the table to two points adrift of Dundee at the bottom of it.
The speed of all this has had a brutal impact on dressing room confidence but there is an upside when you turn to assessing the solidity of foundations for a bounce-back.
Unlike others who have found themselves in a relegation battle after years of uninterrupted Premiership security, and have ultimately lost that battle, St Johnstone isn’t a club tearing itself apart from within.
That was the case with Dundee United and maybe Kilmarnock.
The split between supporters and players/manager/board at those clubs was deeper-rooted and all the more debilitating for that. The same applied to the factional splits between supporters themselves.
The 500
The Boxing Day 500 experience at McDiarmid Park was an informative one.
The first half error-strewn, timid surrender against Celtic provoked unambiguous and loud messages from the East Stand to the pitch and across it into the dugout and the directors’ box.
But all it took was the sort of commitment and football “basics” Callum Davidson has been calling for to reappear in the second half for that irate Saints support to get right behind their team again.
🗣 "A proper No 9's header!"
A lovely ball into the box from Viv Solomon-Otabor and Chris Kane is there to head past #CelticFC goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas.
📺 Watch live on Sky Sports Football
📲 Live blog 👉 https://t.co/sf1HH1lIHd pic.twitter.com/D5P08bl4pM— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 26, 2021
Half-time booing was replaced by full-time applause.
This is not a toxic club sliding towards its inevitable implosion, nor a fan-base with scars too cavernous to heal and demands too unrealistic to be met.
Put a successful transfer window on top of this base and it doesn’t take wild, deluded optimism to envisage a 2022 rise to safety.
