The St Johnstone players have tunnel vision on Premiership survival, according to manager Callum Davidson.
And his soon to be out-of-contract quartet of Zander Clark, Shaun Rooney, Jamie McCart and Callum Hendry exemplify the steely focus the Perth side are applying to their battle to avoid the drop, with talks over new deals put on hold.
“Their commitment has been a big thing for me,” said Davidson.
“We’ve been clear in our dialogue with the players about where we are as a club.
“I’ll always be straight and honest.
“I trust them and they’ve all performed.
“Jamie especially in the second half of the season has been tremendous.
“It’s great to have Shaun back and the other two have obviously been excellent as well.
“Players know the situation – we want to survive and then we can talk about other things.
“Our minds are focused on the job in hand, not worrying about what’s going to happen after that.
“We’ve parked the bus on the contracts.”
Championship homework
Saints hope to avoid the play-offs – and beating St Mirren on Saturday would be a big step towards reaching the safety of 10th place.
But Davidson is doing his homework on potential Championship opponents.
“We’ve been watching a lot of the Championship games for scouting players,” he said.
“We’ve got reports on all the teams and we’ll be watching the play-offs.
“First and foremost we need to make sure we finish above 12th.”
📸🌞| 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙔 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙏𝙊𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙍𝙊𝙒#SJFC pic.twitter.com/5U9bwdbFlm
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) April 29, 2022
Davidson hasn’t given up hope of Craig Bryson returning from injury before the season is over but it’s a race against time.
“The clock is ticking for him,” said the Saints boss.
“He’s running but it will be a big ask to get him involved.
“He’s been out for a while and has had a few wee setbacks.
“The only thing I would say is he’s a fit guy, who looks after himself very well. That won’t be an issue.
“It would just be sharpness.
“Hopefully we can get him back. We want to have as many players available as possible.
“For tomorrow it will be the same squad again.”
