St Johnstone are “enjoying the pressure” of a Premiership relegation battle, according to interim manager Steven MacLean.
A poor run of form culminated in Callum Davidson losing his job and the Perth club being dragged to within two points of the play-off position before the post-split fixtures.
Facing in-form Dundee United – without three starters from their previous game – was a tough test for Saints in the first of their five bottom-six matches.
And MacLean saw a home team that stood up to the challenge rather than wilting, with the 1-0 victory their reward.
The survival mission isn’t complete.
But the signs from that match, and MacLean’s first in charge against Hibs, are encouraging.
“We won’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves. It’s a win and a draw, that’s all,” he said.
“Motherwell will be tough next but we’ll look at their threats and come up with a way to be on the offensive ourselves.
“Every game in this league, if you don’t prepare properly and turn up yourself you’ll lose it.
“What we want is to build on the last two performances and hopefully get some momentum going.”
‘Character’
MacLean believes his side were tested in different ways on Saturday.
“I was pleased with the way we saw out how United started and felt that after 10 minutes or so we settled into the game,” he said.
“We had some good opportunities and could have been further ahead, but then had to defend when they threw everything at us in the final few minutes.
“There are loads of areas to improve on but I was pleased because we played decent football when we could and also dug in when we had to.
“So it was a performance that had a bit of everything and there’s plenty to build on.
“I told the players before last weekend’s game that they should look forward to it.
“People will say it’s pressure and tense, but that’s what football is all about.
“You have to embrace it and be big enough to handle it. You have to enjoy being put in situations like that and trying to come through it.
“Obviously we would like to be higher in the league than we are and be competing for other things.
What the players did showed a lot of character.”
Steven MacLean
“But we’re not, we’re in this position because we deserve to be and the challenge is to get out of it.
“We’ve made a solid start to that but it’s only a start.
“We need to put the pressure on the other teams around us when we’re playing them and see how they respond to it.
“We looked like we enjoyed the pressure against Dundee United, they looked like they enjoyed playing in that game.
“United threw everything at us at the start and the end, but we stood up to it, didn’t panic and found a way to win the game.
“What the players did showed a lot of character.”
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