St Johnstone manager believes his team’s late comeback point against Livingston will turn out to be a crucial one in the Perth side’s relegation battle.
Nicky Clark’s 87th minute equaliser kept Saints 11 points ahead of their McDiarmid Park opponents, extended the gap to second bottom Ross County to five and lifted them above Aberdeen into ninth place.
But when the Saturday fixtures were completed, Saints finished up in a better position than where they started the day.
“I think in the end this will be a good point,” said Levein.
“It was two teams at the bottom end of the table, concerned about the league position, realising that if it comes to a scrap they have to roll their sleeves up and have a go.
“What you saw was the outcome of the pressure – there wasn’t much good football or calm thinking going on.
“It was a real fight and that’s down to the position the two teams are in.”
Moment of quality
Not for the first time this season, Clark and Graham Carey’s final third class shone through.
“Playing Nicky was a big one for me because I was really concerned about him breaking down,” said Levein.
“But if we can get quality balls into the box he’ll score goals.
“We had a lot of crosses but they were poor – until Graham Carey put a great one in and then you wouldn’t want anyone else on the end of it other than Nicky.
“That’s what he does. He scores goals and he’s done it his whole career.
“We didn’t get the quality balls into him in the first part of the game but then you saw what happened when we did.
“Of course there was a VAR check and I was saying: ‘No, I can’t take another one’!”
Sidibeh scan results give reassurance
Seven days after collapsing on the pitch in Paisley, Adama Sidibeh was used as a second half substitute.
“We got the scan results on Adama and there are no cardiac issues at all,” said Levein.
“I think he just worked so hard last week he’s ended up dizzy due to the exertion.
“We looked at his numbers for high intensity running and he was twice or three times some of the others.
“I think that pushed him over the edge and he’s collapsed.
“You have to go through all the medical checks to make sure there isn’t something there which will cause a problem in the future.
“He said today that he wanted to be involved.
“We’re delighted to get him back and I thought he was unlucky again not to score.”
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