We’ll hold nerve in heat of battle

Levein confident Saints can avoid play-off agony

CRAIG LEVEIN is adamant relegationthreatened St Johnstone are equipped to handle the pressure of trying to fight their way to Premiership safety over the course of their remaining three matches.

Having been out of the bottom two since mid-December, the Perth side slipped back into 11th place last weekend and are in a two-way battle with Ross County to try to avoid going into a play-off against a Championship promotion hopeful.

Saints visit already-relegated Livingston today before Wednesday’s potentially pivotal showdown with the Staggies and then a final-day trip to Motherwell.

‘We’ve been down the foot of the table for probably all of the season, just about,’ said Levein, who took over in November when the Perth side were bottom. ‘We haven’t really got to a point where we’ve been out of trouble, so it’s been hanging around us.

‘We’re certainly used to the kind of pressure that arrives when you’re fighting against relegation. We’re in a position where our fate is in our own hands and if you’d asked me a couple of months ago if I’d like to be in this position, I’d have said yes.’

Saints are two points behind County with an identical goal difference and Levein’s objective this weekend is to make sure his side do enough against Livi to remain within striking distance of the Highlanders ahead of Wednesday’s clash in Perth.

‘The idea is to get three points if we can and that puts us on a good footing to go into the game against Ross County on Wednesday,’ said Levein (below). ‘That’s the aim.

‘It’s a little bit of an unknown with Livingston having lost their Premiership status in terms of what Livi is going to turn up. We’ve got to prepare for the best version, but I don’t know.

‘They’ll have guys who are maybe not staying and just how committed are they to get involved in a fight? I don’t know. These are the things that make it difficult to predict.’

Levein admitted he had been unable to press on with plans for next season due to uncertainty about Saints’ league status and the ‘added complication’ of waiting for American businessman Adam Webb’s takeover of the club to be ratified. ‘It’s been well nigh impossible, really,’ he said. ‘Until we know what league we’re playing in and what our budget is, there is nothing I can do at the moment.’ Meanwhile, Eamonn Brophy has warned that Ross County cannot become distracted by thoughts of Wednesday’s showdown with Saints ahead of today’s visit of Motherwell. While there is no escaping the magnitude of the midweek clash, the Dingwall forward insists his side cannot allow themselves to look any further than banking the available three points on offer against the Steelmen. ‘People are saying it’s a sixpointer and it is a massive game, but we just want to take one game at a time, try and get three points against Motherwell and then go into that game against St Johnstone trying to get three points,’ he said. ‘That game is going to be the decider in a lot of people’s eyes but, at the end of the day, it’s only three points and we’ve got nine points to play for.

‘Hopefully we can take as many points as we can from all the games.’

County are buoyed by the fact two of their remaining games at home, where they have won four and drawn two of their six matches since Don Cowie took over from Derek Adams.

As they prepare to host a Motherwell side who thrashed them 5-0 in Adams’ last game in charge in February, Brophy believes his team can also draw a psychological edge for this weekend’s clash from the fact they have so much at stake in comparison to the Steelmen.

‘Obviously Motherwell will go out and try to win the game but our mindset has got to be that we don’t want to be involved in the play-offs,’ said Brophy.

‘They are safe and they can maybe finish seventh but we want to stay in the league, so our hunger to win the game has got to be more than theirs.

‘Obviously the last game against them wasn’t great but we’ll try and put that right. We’ve got a lot more to play for than they have and hopefully we can show that.’