Danny Grainger’s loss is to be Alan Maybury’s gain, with the former Hearts full-back gearing himself up for a return to the St Johnstone starting line-up against his old club at Tynecastle today.
He’s had to be patient for his opportunity, as in recent weeks a settled Saints back four has built an impressive record of only conceding one goal in five games.
Regular left-back Grainger is suspended for the Perth club’s next two games, however, and the Irishman is the obvious replacement.
He said, “It’s frustrating for me at the moment but the team has been doing well, keeping clean sheets and getting good results. That means I have had to be patient.
“I went through a spell of filling in holes and if that’s for the good of the team hopefully it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“But when guys come back into their natural positions I have been dropping out.
“It’s not what I signed up for in the summer. I want to play football, but I understand the manager’s thinking.
“With everyone pretty much fit and available I have had to bide my time.
“But with Danny being suspended hopefully I will get my chance against Hearts.
“I’d like to think the manager sees me as the natural man to replace Danny. It’s certainly a position I know well.
“Full-back is my natural position and I’ve played on the left a couple of times already this season. I’m definitely ready.”TransformationThe transformation in terms of results for Saints since the end of November has been dramatic, with just one defeat in nine.
The threat of relegation has been replaced by the realistic possibility of a top-six finish.
Maybury said, “We are on a good run and picking up points. It was important to get that win against Motherwell in midweek.
“We haven’t played much at home and were disappointed with the 0-0 against St Mirren.
“But those three points on Wednesday bring us right back into the mix and we want to be looking up rather than down.
“We took a while to get going earlier in the season, with a few injuries and new faces taking time to settle in.
“We were finding our feet and our confidence maybe took a dunt with back-to-back defeats from Celtic.
“But now we are one of the form teams in the league.
“People can talk up others and that’s just fine by us. We are just getting on quietly with the job.
“After we lost 4-0 to Motherwell in November we were taking steps backwards rather than going forward.
“We spoke about it and we got things sorted out on the training ground.
“It was never anything major and sometimes little things can make a huge difference. We have been much more settled and a bit more solid.”
Saints put Hearts out of the Scottish Cup earlier this month, which gives them greater confidence going to Tynecastle than most other SPL sides would have.
Maybury observed, “That was a big win for us. Sometimes it suits us to be playing away and attacking teams on the break.
“Hearts have good players but the memory of the cup win is still fresh in our minds and we have nothing to fear.
“I was speaking to one of the Hearts lads last week and he mentioned people were talking about them as potential title candidates.
“He felt they would have a better idea of where they stood after the games against the Old Firm and St Johnstone.
“They got the right result against Rangers but the 4-0 defeat from Celtic was a sore one.”
Manager Derek McInnes, who has Jamie Adams available, said, “I stressed to the players this morning that our attitude will have to be spot on.”