St Johnstone will be looking to complete the circle at McDiarmid Park on saturday when they welcome the team they defeated back in November to set in motion a run of results that has taken them to joint sixth in the SPL and into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
Before the Perth side scraped a 1-0 victory at Pittodrie they were dangerously perched just above the relegation spot.
As midfielder Liam Craig pointed out, however, it will be a different St Johnstone that Aberdeen will face this time round.
He explained, “When you look back to the 1-0 win up at Aberdeen 12 or 13 games ago that was a turning point.
“Since then we have only lost twice once at Parkhead and the other at Tynecastle.
“That’s a decent record and we want to keep it going.
“When we went to Pittodrie we’d had a terrible month. We were not scoring and had been hammered by everyone we played.
“But we went up there, battled and got a bit of luck when Zander Diamond scored an own goal.
“After that we went to Hibs to draw and then beat St Mirren. Those three away games really kick-started things for us. We’ve not looked back since.”CreditCraig added, “Credit to Peter Enckleman and the back four. They have been excellent and when you have a platform like that to build on it makes it a lot easier.
“We’ve had five clean sheets in a row at home. We were leaking goals in October so we knew something had to be done.
“I think everyone just pulled together, worked hard and took pride in a clean sheet.
“Michael Duberry and Steven Anderson have been unbelievable in the last six or seven weeks.
“Everyone is doing their best to avoid losing goals and with Collin Samuel and Stevie May up front we’re causing teams problems.”
Craig was dropped to the bench for Wednesday night’s Scottish Cup fifth round win over Partick Thistle, but he came up with the perfect response in the form of a spectacular 25-yard strike only 10 minutes after being sent on.
The former Falkirk man said, “I want to start scoring more. Last season everyone was chipping in with goals but this season we have not been doing it as much.
“Murray Davidson and I both scored against Partick and I’d love to keep that going because you want it spread around the team.
“A lot has been said about the pitch but we know what to expect from it. It’s not going to be nice football and it has disrupted us a bit.
“But we’re getting used to it. It’s not easy to get the ball down and pass it, which is the way we want to play.
“In the last few weeks we have learned how to adapt to it so I suppose we can maybe use that to our advantage.
“It’s not ideal but it’s not the only pitch in Scotland like that right now. It’s not a pitch for running or passing on so I thought I’d might as well shoot.Surprise”I caught the keeper by surprise and luckily it went in.
“Getting that goal early in the second half gave us a comfortable lead to win the game.”
Craig insisted that Saints will have no problem getting their minds back on SPL business, despite the fact that a cup quarter-final is now looming on the horizon.
Meanwhile manager Derek McInnes revealed Craig was benched because he feared he wouldn’t see through 90 minutes on a heavy pitch.
He said, “We were wary of playing Liam from the start but I’m glad he made such a big impact when he came on.”
“The players deserve huge credit for the win over Partick.
“Their schedule has been badly disrupted and we only heard the game was going ahead at lunchtime.
“But they switched on for a tough tie and I was pleased with a win against a side which had gone nine games unbeaten.
“Our defending has been organised, determined and aggressive. There is room for improvement but we are in pretty good shape.”