Relieved St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright reported that star player Michael O’Halloran has not aggravated an ankle injury with his second half weekend run-out.
The former Bolton and Celtic forward was listed as a substitute against Partick Thistle after missing out on training during the international break.
It hadn’t been in Wright’s plans to bring O’Halloran on as early as the second period re-start, but the Northern Irishman confirmed that the 45 minutes he got hasn’t done him any harm.
“Ideally he would have started but he had a wee problem with his ankle,” the Saints manager said. “It flared up over the break and the plan had been to give him a full week’s training.
“But he only got one day under his belt. Even coming on from the bench was a bit of a risk. Being 2-0 down we have to put him on earlier than planned.
“But he has come through it so that is a massive positive for us.
“Michael is important to us. If we had started him the temptation would have been to keep him on as long as possible.
“With not having enough time on the grass that could have been an issue. He came on and did extremely well in the 45 minutes he got. He nearly got us something from the game.”
The end of the first round of fixtures is an obvious time to take stock, and Wright is content with the platform his team has to build on in the remaining three quarters of the campaign.
“We are disappointed with Saturday’s result but we are still in a healthy position,” he pointed out.
“We lost to two wonder strikes.
“We could have played better but it wasn’t a performance to overly concern me. We created enough chances to win the game.
“We should have taken something from the match. The officials have missed an obvious penalty opportunity near the end.
“That’s the first quarter done and we are three points better off than last year at this stage.
“I use that as a guide, particularly when just a few weeks ago some people were saying we were struggling.
“It is just to put everything into perspective for the players.
“We are seventh and outside that top six. But we are only four points off fourth place.”
Wright added: “We can look back and say we have 14 points but should have more. That should give us confidence going forward because there have been games where luck hasn’t been with us.
“But we know we get better as the season goes on.
“The big plus is our goals for tally. The downside is that we still haven’t had a clean sheet.
“There is the danger that if the goals dry up we aren’t keeping teams out. But we have been creating chances and I don’t envisage that being an issue. But we have to get back to clean sheets. Do that and keep scoring and we can have another really good season.”