Craig Levein insists the battle to avoid the Premiership play-off place is no ‘straight shoot-out’ between St Johnstone and Ross County.
Saints currently sit in 10th place, just one point head of the Staggies in 11th, with Livingston adrift at the bottom of the table.
With two games to go until the split, nothing is likely to be decided in the next few weeks.
And Levein believes the race could go all the way to the end of the season, with Saints and County even dragging the likes of Aberdeen and Motherwell back into the mix.
“It’s not a straight shoot-out,” said the St Johnstone boss.
“It’s not like any of the teams around us are streaking away and putting a solid run together.
“We’ve still got to play everybody after the split.
“I’m certainly not looking at it and feeling down or low or anything like that.
“I think we’re in a decent position, if you ask Ross County or Livingston, they’d prefer to be where we are.
“I’m confident we will get ourselves out of this situation.
“I’m seeing the players in training, I see what they’re giving us day-to-day and what they’re capable of.
“I can see the performances have been there in parts of games and that there’s improvement there too.
“I come away from matches, watch them again and marry things up with what I saw live.
“And what I said after the game last weekend I’d pretty much stick by, we did a lot of things right.
“We just need to keep going and that’s what we’ll do.”
Cammy MacPherson update
Levein also offered an update on the injured – and soon to be out-of-contract – Cammy MacPherson.
The former St Mirren midfielder has not featured since November after sustaining a thigh injury.
He is now back in training after undergoing surgery and Levein says he – like Sven Sprangler – could yet feature for Saints before the end of the season.
The Perth boss also revealed himself as a fan of the 25-year-old, whose deal expires in May.
“We like Cammy,” said Levein.
“I didn’t think we’d see him before the end of this season.
“He’s out running and kicking balls now, but it’s still in its infancy really, and the last thing we’d want to do is push him and something happens again.
“So we’ll need to be patient and let him decide when he’s ready.
“But the way he’s going, I could see him playing two or three times before the end of the season.
“The day Cammy tore his thigh, on a Friday, we’d planned to start him the next day. He tried a long pass and it just snapped.
“He was very much part of the thought process for being able to help us.
“It’s been a little bit of a nightmare for him. He had the op, they stitched it, which means that there is much more strength in the muscle.
“It will be good to see him back. He’s not had much luck here at all. He needs a proper pre-season, I think, and he needs things to go well through that pre-season, because there’s no doubt he’s a talented boy.
“We saw that in training even the first couple of weeks we came in here that he can play”
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