Liam Gordon believes St Johnstone’s Premiership survival bid is built on solid foundations.
Saints couldn’t give the near 2,000-strong travelling support in Edinburgh the win that would have opened up a four-point gap on Dundee and closed in on teams above them.
But the 0-0 draw with Hibs was further 2022 evidence that the familiar traits of fighting from the first minute to the last and shutting out their opposition are back in the Perth DNA.
And that will serve them well as the pressure mounts in the closing weeks of the league campaign, according to the captain.
Character and clean sheet
“I don’t think coming away from Easter Road is ever a bad result,” said Gordon. “This isn’t an easy place to come – they’ve just gone into fourth.
“For me as a defender, the priority is always a clean sheet. We got that.
“We defended well throughout the game and did better with the ball in the second half.
“We got into a lot of good areas but it just wasn’t happening for us in the final third.
“There were a couple of times when boys couldn’t quite get the ball out of their feet to shoot or we couldn’t make the final pass count.
“What you need most at this stage of the season is boys digging deep.
“I thought we showed great character and fight in the game.
“All in all it’s a hard-fought point which we’ll take and move on.”
Hibernian climbed up to fourth in the Scottish Premiership despite being held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by St Johnstone 👇 pic.twitter.com/0eHRGHYDnM
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 5, 2022
The skipper, who was at his commanding best in the heart of the back three, added: “I definitely think we’ve built a strong platform to build on with the way we’ve played in most of our games since the break.
“We’ve got a good squad and I believe it’s a base to achieve better things in the remainder of the season.
“There’s a lot of positivity about the place.
“We’re confident we can get the job done and avoid the drop.
“There’s no point in looking too far ahead.
“If we can start accumulating points to put pressure on teams above us then great but our main focus is the next game after our free weekend.
“With a few boys picking up injuries against Hibs, the wee break has probably come at a good time for us before the big push toward the end of the season.”
Back to back home games
Saints face Motherwell and Livingston at home when their season resumes.
“They’re massive for us,” said Gordon.
“Over the last few months we’ve had superb backing at McDiarmid Park.
“You can see in our performances how it has helped the players.
“We had 1,900 fans in Edinburgh, who were brilliant, and hopefully we can give them two big results in Perth.”
