The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
‘Saints are back and full of belief for the battle’
Glenn Middleton believes the real St Johnstone are back – but the battle to stay in the Premiership is far from won.
A solitary defeat in six has not only taken the Perth side off the foot of the table, it’s also brought them within four points of Saturday’s opponents Ross County.
Reducing that to just one in the Highlands is all the incentive Saints need to secure back-to-back league victories for the first time this season.
“It goes to show how quickly things can change in football,” said Middleton.
“I don’t think anyone has ever lost sight of that.
“If we can go up there and win, things are looking a lot better than they were.
“We’d have taken the chance to peg them back to a point a few weeks ago. Definitely.
“But it’s all very well talking about it. We need to go up there and show how badly we want to win and how we want to keep this run going.”
He added: “It’s been a big few weeks for us. What we went through as a team earlier in the season is behind us now.
“I think you are now starting to see what we are really like.
“I don’t think anything has changed massively in terms of effort or desire to win the games. That has always been there.
“Sometimes you go through these spells, that’s football, but we are definitely coming out the other side of it now.
“Obviously, the differences from last season have been huge, but we never lost sight of how quickly things can change.
“We have started to turn it around in the last few weeks. Everyone is starting to talk really positively about us again.
“We are feeling positive going into every game and we want to carry this form on.”
Middleton has been a key man since the mid-season break, setting up the winner at Livingston off the bench and then putting in impressive consecutive displays as a starter against St Mirren, Aberdeen and Hearts.
“My own form has definitely picked up,” said the on-loan Rangers attacker.
“I am probably playing with more freedom now. There is less weight and pressure on me, but that probably comes from myself.
“In football it is all about momentum. Once you get a decent performance under your belt you can kick on.
“Confidence plays a part, but I am also quite tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to reach.
“Sometimes I don’t do myself any favours with that. Hopefully this form carries on.”
Middleton has been part of – and scored – some spectacular goals for the
Perth team, last season in particular.
The opener against Hearts last weekend sits nicely in that company.
“It was a fantastic team goal and that shows what
we can do,” he said of the slick move that culminated in Ali Crawford’s finish.
“It gives us massive confidence and full belief
we are capable of producing something like that in every game.
“We are hoping for more of the same against Ross County. They score a lot of goals and I think Regan Charles-cook is still the league’s top scorer.
“You can see they pose threats in every game, so massive respect to them and how Malky Mackay will set them up – but we go up there knowing what we have to do.”
Saints will be backed by around 500 supporters in Dingwall, with 1,500 having already snapped up tickets for the trip to face Hibs the week after.
“The fans have been right behind us and that’s massive,” said Middleton.
“You can’t have a bad word to say about them. They’ve always been there for us even in games when things weren’t going the way they should have been.
“Of course they let their frustrations show, as they are entitled to, but they have been absolutely amazing the last few weeks.
“We are all very grateful for that and we can use it as a positive. Hopefully it helps us kick on.”
Mackay was careful not to heap too much pressure on his players ahead of Saturday’s Global Energy Stadium encounter.
“They are all important, it’s no different from any other,” he said.
“We still have got to play 11 games and every one of them is important to us.”
Mackay hopes to have some players back after being without David Cancola, Jack Burroughs, Blair Spittal and Keith Watson at Easter Road.
He added: “We have four or five out at the moment and there’s maybe one or two back. We will see how we go.”