Frazer Wright insists that the St Johnstone players know exactly what it takes to win the mental battle against Dundee United.
The centre-half believes his side have a big psychological advantage over their Tayside counterparts, a factor which goes a long way to explaining why the Perth outfit have won seven out of the last nine games against the Tangerines.
Saints came out on top again on Saturday at Tannadice thanks to a Michael O’Halloran double with United rarely threatening Alan Mannus’s goal during the 90 minutes.
Wright said: “We were delighted to get the three points.
“It seems that if we can score first against them, then we can get into their heads a wee bit.
“The time they beat us this season, they scored first against us.
“So I think when our first goal went in we had a big advantage.”
When asked if he felt that Saints getting into the heads of the United players was starting to prey on them, Wright replied: “Definitely. Today they changed their midfield and their shape.
“They don’t normally do that so they were definitely thinking about us.
“After we got the first goal, they seemed to argue amongst themselves a bit.
“It means we were doing our jobs and it was working correctly for us.
“We just took advantage of that.”