The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Fears for Saints but all is not lost
The St Johnstone supporters were absolutely magnificent at Livingston. The travelling fans cheered their team into the tunnel after the players completed their pre-game warm-up, played their part in the best start a Saints side has made in many a long month and made sure their backing didn’t peter away as the game drifted deep into injury time.
After the final whistle, though, they didn’t know whether to boo, applaud or get to the nearest exit as quickly as possible.
You probably had families who, between them, did all three.
It was that kind afternoon, that kind conclusion.
It’s been that kind of year, that kind of three years.
Bigger issues about how a club riding as high as Saints were in the relatively recent past now finds itself in this position – teetering on the brink of a second relegation play-off in 36 months – will soon be front and centre.
In the here and now, however, the most important bit of the 202324 story hasn’t yet been written.
Attacker Adama Sidibeh scored after eight minutes of an energetic start which should have brought more goals for the visitors.
The home side eventually responded and defender Cristian Montano levelled in the 72nd minute from a corner before Andrew Shinnie, on for Michael Nottingham, fired in a dramatic winner.
Ross County remain in 10th place, despite a 5-1 defeat at home to Motherwell, and sit two points above the Perth side ahead of their crucial clash at Mcdiarmid Park on Wednesday night, with only one fixture remaining after that.
Given the cruel late twist to Saturday’s game – a new way of finding a familiar result – there’s a persuasive of of argument that this is a season doomed to failure.
But there’s also evidence out there which can serve to reinforce the belief of the optimists among the Fair City fan base.
Courier Sport sets out reasons for both.
St Johnstone supporters – is your glass still half-full or are you down to the tasteless dregs?
HALF-EMPTY
Finding new ways to lose
Teams going down put their fans through torture. It goes with the territory.
Most of the time they’re beaten by the better team.
That certainly wasn’t the case on Saturday.
But the fact that Saints produced their best concerted attacking display of the season yet still lost feeds into the fear that this is only going to end one way.
David Martindale was quite right to point out this sort of scenario is all too familiar to him – Livingston’s late defeat in Dingwall when they were pushing for a winner springs to mind.
It’s what happens to sides heading out of a league.
Self-inflicted wounds
St Johnstone are showing no signs of cutting out glaring mistakes.
They were at it again. How on earth a team can leave a player in five yards of space to score a goal at the back post from a corner is beyond me. It’s the most basic of basics.
Livingston’s second wasn’t quite so bad but DJ Jaiyesimi was weak in his halfway line challenge and David Keltjens failed to track a runner.
The continuation of selfinflicted wounds is another big box ticked for a team not learning lessons and setting themselves up for more defeats.
Form
For the second time this season, Saints have clocked up four league defeats in a row.
This run is worse than the previous one when you compare the opponents (no Rangers or Hearts) and the timing.
They now need to win two matches on the bounce but haven’t done that since November 2022.
It’s quite clearly not a fact-based theory to expect it to happen over the next week – and Ross County, Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers all look a better bet to score goals than Saints.
HALF-FULL
This isn’t a mountain Right, it’s time to be positive.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory happens every weekend in professional football, more so at this stage of the season when one side is pushing harder than normal for a win and the other has no result-driven pressure.
Footballers are programmed to move on quickly and this was not a last-day twist.
Saints only have to beat a team that fell apart even more spectacularly than them and they will be going into the last game holding a one-point lead.
There have been many
more unexpected and unlikely swings than that.
For Craig Levein, it isn’t really a hard psychological sell.
He can point to their opponent’s weaknesses, to the fact County’s away form is utterly dreadful and to so many good things that happened in West Lothian.
Have to go for it again
If this was an 800 metres race, Saints haven’t made their run for the line with a lap to go or even approaching the final bend.
They’re in the home straight. That might be no bad thing, though.
Had Saints won in Livingston and been a point in front, there could have been muddled strategic thinking from management and players.
The temptation to think a draw is OK would have been powerful.
They played like a team who had only one thing in mind on Saturday and were all the better for it. Win.
That’s now the only mindset open to them on Wednesday. County are the team who may struggle with a “stick or twist” dilemma, not Saints.
Play-off hopes improve
After the Hibs defeat and, to a lesser extent, after the Aberdeen loss, I struggled to see a roadmap to Premiership football next season for St Johnstone.
Even through a play-off. Providing the emotional damage isn’t too severe post-livingston, the weekend actually topped up my faith that all is not necessarily lost.
Put it another way – if I was a Raith or Partick scout I’d have left the ground more fearful of Levein’s side than when I arrived.
Should Saints end up facing Raith they showed they can play well on plastic.
And they have also shown they can cut a defence open through patterns of quick pass and move football.
Game-management – on the pitch and/or off it – concerns remain but man for man and 11 against 11, St Johnstone shouldn’t be out-gunned by either of the two Championship sides left standing.