Rise from sinners to saints a superb achievement

“The run of results since that Fir Park defensive horror show at the end of November has been incredible

Even as someone who always had faith St Johnstone would eventually get out of relegation trouble, I must admit to being taken aback by the scale and durability of this season’s revival.

Merely being able to safely say they are safe at this stage of the Premiership campaign – they were actually out of danger after the Motherwell win a month ago – is a magnificent achievement.

History said that if they were going to escape the drop, or be in the play-offs, it would have happened after the clocks go forward.

Yet, here we are at the start of March with Saints having secured their top flight status in the eyes of everybody but those who insist on inserting the “until it’s mathematically impossible” caveat.

The run of results since that Fir Park defensive horror show at the end of November has been incredible.

In 18 games of football in league and cup they have lost twice to Celtic and once on Livingston’s plastic pitch when they were denied a stonewall penalty. That is it.

They are one point off Hibs in the race for the top six and what is now required isn’t something out of the ordinary. It’s merely a continuation of what they’re doing.

Beat Hibs and Hamilton and Saints will have a real chance of completing the job.

Do it, and even though there won’t be any silverware or a place in Europe to show for their efforts, there will be a strong argument to be made to say it will have been Tommy Wright’s finest managerial accomplishment.