Clear blue water has opened up between St Johnstone and the safety of 10th position in the Premiership.
But the Perth side’s Wednesday night trip to face St Mirren presents an opportunity to start building a bridge across it.
“We can’t do anything about other results,” said manager Callum Davidson, whose team are seven points adrift of Ross County above them.
“We can only effect what we’re doing – and that means winning as many games as possible.
“If we can claw other teams back in, that would great.
“It’s unbelievably tight in the middle of the table.
“There will be teams who won’t win for a few weeks and it’s up to us to take advantage if that happens.
“With that we can maybe drag one or two teams back down and then put them under pressure.
“The aim is to get ourselves on a positive run and see what happens.”
Cammy MacPherson
Davidson wouldn’t have been allowed to play Cammy MacPherson in this fixture had he still been a loan player but he’s in contention to start against his old club after he was signed permanently in January.
Melker Hallberg is suspended, Chris Kane is out for the season and Theo Bair and Nadir Ciftci won’t be available until Aberdeen next week.
“Having Cammy able to play is great,” said Davidson.
“We’ve got a lot of players signed up compared to the start of the season. Melker is another one who can play against Hibs. That will be helpful.
“It’s only Glenn (Middleton) against Rangers who will miss out.”
📸👊| Focussed for tomorrow.#SJFC pic.twitter.com/S6IFnCZ4xf
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) February 8, 2022
Two goalless draws between the sides points to a tight contest in Paisley.
“Jim (Goodwin) has changed his formation a little bit,” said Davidson.
“They work really hard as a defensive unit and try to catch teams on the counter-attack.
“It’s a system that is working really well for them.
“With McGrath having left, the lad Connor Ronan has really stepped up. He’s been very good.”
