St Johnstone manager Craig Levein hasn’t been spooked by Ross County’s shock victory against Rangers.
The Staggies’ historic 3-2 win on Sunday, combined with Saints’ defeat to Kilmarnock the day before, has seen Don Cowie’s men cut the gap in the battle to avoid the play-offs to just one point.
But it hasn’t altered the fact that the Perth club are still in control of their own destiny.
And that’s the most important thing to Levein going into the post-split Premiership run-in.
“The result between Ross County and Rangers – there is nothing I can do about that,” he said.
“It doesn’t bother me.
“I can’t have any influence on anything else other than the team we are playing on a particular day between now and the end of the season.
“We know what we are facing.
“It is not like we fell into the bottom six on the last day before the split.
“We know what we are doing. We know who we are facing. They have been close games before.
“It is just a matter of getting some of these players back and we just need to be at our best and be ready to scrap.”
Reasons to be cheerful
Levein added a bit of context and perspective to Saints’ five-game mini-campaign to avoid a home and away shoot-out against a Championship team.
“We were bottom of the league when we started,” he said. “The fact that we are two places above that now is good.
“Our record against the top six teams has not been good but it has obviously been better against the bottom six – which is normal.
“Saturday was disappointing.
“We had some really good things in the game – there was Benji’s overhead kick and we had other chances that we didn’t manage to take.
“I think Killie are a couple of years ahead of us. They are a good side. They know what they are doing and they are experienced.
“I was going into the game hopeful after the last two performances but we just didn’t quite reach the same heights.
“And if you do that against Kilmarnock your chances of winning are pretty slim.
“You need to dig in and accept that every game is going to be a fight and we understand that.
“That part of our game has been pretty good and generally we compete. That is the first thing you need.
“I’d still like us to do a little bit better with the ball. That would be helpful in the manner it gets us more chances to score goals.”
Liam Gordon latest
Meanwhile, Liam Gordon should be back for the next game, having missed the matches against Hibs and Killie.
“Liam is improving,” Levein reported. “I would be hopeful that this extra week we have got gives him enough time to get himself ready.
“It was an issue with his groin and he obviously wasn’t available on Saturday.
“I am hopeful that he is going to make it back.”
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