The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Cleary convinced Saints can survive
The play-offs are now St Johnstone’s only escape route from relegation. But the Perth side retaining control of their own destiny is significant, according to defender Dan Cleary.
That was the primary objective when the Irishman arrived in Scotland during the depths of winter when Saints were a football club in the depths of despair.
“Listen, nobody is happy that we’re in this position,” said the former Liverpool and Dundalk centre-back.
“But from January we’ve had some very good results and have got ourselves off the bottom.
“There have been some disappointing results as well obviously but, all in all, I think we’ve improved a lot as a team and as individuals.
“I knew what I was coming into. I knew it would be a tough few months. I was ready for a fight and I haven’t shied away from it.
“I’m happy that it’s in our hands to stay up.”
Cleary believes Saturday’s draw with Livingston was a step in the right direction.
“We were much better than we were against St Mirren,” he said.
“It was a much-improved performance all round and a deserved point.
“We were gutted to concede so late off a setpiece but we’ll take the point. We were a lot braver on the ball.
“There were times when we played some really good stuff.
“Mayso (Stevie May) put a lot of pressure on their centre-halves and didn’t let them play. We were working hard all over the pitch.”
By the time Saints face Aberdeen tomorrow night, Dundee’s result against Hibs may have given mathematical certainty to the automatic relegation issue.
It won’t affect the McDiarmid mindset either way, however.
“We’re not thinking about them (Aberdeen and Hibs) in terms of the play-offs,” said Cleary. “We’re just thinking about winning two massive games in their own right.
“We want to pick up momentum on the back of the draw at Livingston.
“We don’t want to be a team that is inconsistent from game to game.
“Our aim is to find a high performance level and maintain it.
“We lost it with our defeat to St Mirren but other than that our results have been quite decent.
“We need to raise our standards and keep them there if we go into the play-offs.”
Cleary was substituted at half-time in the draw with Dundee and then benched against St Mirren.
The weekend was a return to the starting line-up and a return to form.
“I was obviously disappointed to be left out last week,” he said.
“I’m happy to be back in and I’ll be trying to make sure I stay there by keeping my own performance level high. Saturday was a much better performance from all of us on the ball and off it.”
Meanwhile, David Martindale believes Ivan Konovalov is equipped to become Livingston’s firstchoice goalkeeper next term as he prepares for the likely departure of Max Stryjek this summer.
Russian Konovalov, who signed for the Lions in January, has made his first two starts for the club in the last couple of matches against Hibernian and St Johnstone while Pole Stryjek served a ban.
Martindale always intended to give his recent recruit some game time before the end of this season and now he must decide who wears the gloves for tomorrow’s cinch Premiership trip to St Mirren.
“I decided when Ivan came in the building that I was always going to give Ivan game time,” said the Lions boss.
“I said even before Max got suspended that he was always going to come into the team.
“I’ve still to make my mind up but he will potentially keep his place on Wednesday.”