Some teams will be hoping the five-week break has served as a reset button for their Premiership campaigns.
St Johnstone, on the other hand, intend to make sure it was merely a pause.
The Perth side were on a roll of five games undefeated when the league season was put on hold for the World Cup.
But even though momentum was unavoidably lost, manager Callum Davidson believes his side can still pick up where they left off when they face Ross County on Saturday.
“We want to make sure we put ourselves in a better position than we did last season,” he said. “We’re doing that at the moment.
“We need to make sure we continue our form because a little run of games can shoot you up the league.
“The table is really tight and every game is so important.
“It is a tough place to go and we obviously were beaten there last year.
“We’ll be looking to make it really difficult for them and make sure we get something from the game.
“It is possible for any team, right to the bottom of the league, to finish in the top six. It is the way the league is.”
Davidson added: “We’ve worked really hard on having a goal threat. There are things we can get better with – how we build play and what we do in certain minutes of the game.
“But we’re getting into good areas and hopefully that continues.”
