Games against Celtic are unlikely to define St Johnstone’s season, but the problem for the Perth outfit is that the defeat on Sunday was hardly an aberration.
An upturn in performance levels under new manager Simo Valakari has tailed off, and they garnered just one point from their six matches in December, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the Premiership table.
There’s no sugar-coating their situation, and in fairness, Saints defender Jack Sanders wasn’t attempting to when assessing their plight ahead of a crunch home game against in-form Hibernian on Thursday.
“We obviously know what the situation is with the league table but we’re trying not to get too low,” Sanders said.
“Our performances haven’t been as good over the last few weeks, and we’ve not got results either – that’s what matters at the end of the day. It’s up to us to change this situation we find ourselves in now.
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“These next two games are massive. We’ve seen how quickly things can change. It can happen the other way with a few good results.
“We’re in a sticky position but I genuinely believe that we’ve got the players and staff here to make that happen.”
A defeat to this Celtic side, no matter the margin, shouldn’t be the cause of a further dent in the fragile St Johnstone confidence, according to Sanders, who was impressed by the relentlessness of Brendan Rodgers’ side.
“We knew it was going to be tough, but you have to have a belief inside you that you can get a result,” he said.
“We had that. I thought we were good value in the first half – they had a few chances, but they weren’t massive ones, and we were quite solid and compact.
“We got into the break at just 1-0 and thought there might be a little chance in the second half. But they turned it on and we found it difficult to cope.
“It’s tough physically and mentally. It was my first time playing there. There are always things you can learn in defeat. The way they were pressing even at the very end of the game was impressive.
“You don’t brush games under the carpet, but we have to move on quickly because we know our results against Celtic won’t be the main thing for our season.”
