Prolonging the torture and delaying the inevitable or the first step of a great escape story for the ages?
There won’t be long to wait until we find out which storyline will be attached to St Johnstone’s 2-1 victory over Ross County.
Two more fixtures remain of the 2024/25 Premiership season.
What can be said with absolute authority is that the Perth side will need to win at least one of their games to have any chance of setting-up a play-off against Livingston or Partick Thistle.
Courier Sport picks out five talking points from the weekend.
The better team won
Strip away all the big picture stuff, on the day, this was undeniably a thoroughly deserved win.
Saints created better chances, showed more attacking intent and, all in all, responded to the pressurised situation in a far more impressive manner than their opponent.
There were flaws. Of course, there were flaws.
Just because we’ve now seen so many subtle variations of County’s equalising goal (and the one that was ruled out for offside, for that matter) doesn’t make it easier to accept.
It’s too late in the season for this team to eradicate the self-harm streak that has dragged them down.
The only hope is that, as on Saturday, the players find a way to redeem themselves.
That was the best bit about this win.
When you have absorbed as many blows as St Johnstone have been dealt, self-inflicted or otherwise, the natural inclination is to fear, even expect, the same conclusion as usual.
It happened the week before against Kilmarnock when they looked a beaten bunch.
But it didn’t happen on this occasion.
They didn’t buckle under the weight of what can become an inescapable destiny for a team that’s been at the bottom of the league as long as they have.
As they were in the first half, they were the better team in the second.
That was predominantly a consequence of intangibles bundled up into the ‘character’ package.
But it was also a result of fundamentally being a more effective side than Ross County.
For the third time this season, St Johnstone have looked superior to this opponent, by a considerable margin, and have secured a result that reflected that.
A league campaign isn’t all about head to heads, and County have had sustained periods of the season when their form has been far greater than Saints’.
But, as it stands, the Highlanders are the worst team in the division.
Let’s hope there is enough time left for Simo Valakari’s team to make it matter.
The winner
Valakari would have loved, and gratefully received, any type of winning goal.
Saturday’s, though, captured what has been lacking over the campaign and what three players who have only become regular starters after the split have brought to his team.
Elliot Watt isn’t a box-to-box central midfielder. He isn’t a number eight who will make a career out of dynamic bursts beyond centre-backs.
But on the hour mark of this game, he showed more urgency than the man who was marking him to get into the penalty area and, scuffed or not, his left-foot finish was the reward for releasing the handbrake.
It wouldn’t be a Saints open-play goal these days without a Josh McPake involvement.
He has been a man of the match contender in every game he’s played since the split.
Coming in from his beat on the left proved to be a crucial decision, as it enabled him to keep the move alive with the toe of his boot.
McPake will have more eye-catching assists (already has) but possibly none more important.
And, on the other side of the box, Taylor Steven didn’t touch the ball but his run took defensive midfielder, Connor Randall with him and opened up the space that Watt needed.
Selfless off the ball work, numbers in the box, determination to keep the ball alive and getting shots away.
Saints will need more where that came from this week.
Giving loan players a good name
Speaking of Elliot Watt, you can’t help but be pleased for a player whose importance to this St Johnstone team is soaring.
Let’s not rewrite history, there were reasons, good reasons, he was left out of the starting line-up for eight games in a row.
Watt had struggled with the tempo and ferocity of a Premiership midfield and it was no surprise that Valakari took him out of the side after the home defeat to Hearts.
Saints then entered their best spell of form of the season.
The Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden felt like the first realistic opportunity to reintroduce the former Scotland under-21 international but that didn’t happen until the week after, at Fir Park.
Watt made his mark on that game with a second half goal, was one of the few who kept looking for the ball against Kilmarnock and was the best midfielder on the pitch in the win over County.
We probably wouldn’t have seen him again had it not been for his diligence on the training ground.
Let’s face it, football history is littered with stories of loan players who become disaffected and detached in comparable scenarios.
St Johnstone’s recent history certainly has.
Not Watt.
On Saturday he put his body on the line, made tactical fouls when they were needed, constantly ensured he was available to receive a pass, assisted one goal and scored another.
Watt is giving loan players a good name, which in his circumstances, is no mean feat.
Still a long shot
Ross County fans should certainly fear how their team will fare in a play-off.
They are a poor side and Livingston look well-equipped to claim their place in the top-flight should they clash over two legs.
Seven defeats in a row at this stage of the season is alarming stuff, make no mistake.
But the law of averages – and the nature of this County team – would suggest that they will win one of their last two games.
Wednesday night’s match at Dens Park (where they have a very good record) feels like that sort of occasion.
Then they face Motherwell at home to finish off – exactly the sort of fixture you would want.
I can’t see one victory for Saints being enough to beat County to 11th place.
The Perth side have to do something that has been beyond them this season and the two before that – get a point or more against Hearts.
The last time they won at Tynecastle, Callum Hendry scored with a late header in 2019.
Lawrence Shankland is back on form and the story of the three games between these two teams this season has been of greater final third quality proving decisive.
The Saints players will to need to replicate the sort of performance that shocked the country when Celtic were the opponents to turn faint survival hopes into realistic ones.
Off the pitch
St Johnstone tops have long had the names of local businesses on the front.
Some of those companies boasted a national or global reach, but their roots were Perth and Perthshire.
By securing a multi-year deal with the online clothing firm, MandM, CEO Fran Smith has taken kit sponsorship in a different direction.
Given Saints have been a club in decline on the pitch for a few seasons, it’s a job well done on his part.
That the man who owns MandM is a Danish billionaire involved in football and has been credited with an interest in investing in our game may prove to be a coincidence and of absolutely no significance to St Johnstone.
But, at the very least, you would imagine Anders Holch Povlsen will be invited to take in a game at McDiarmid Park next time he’s staying at one of his 11 Scottish estates.
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