St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright has demanded greater consistency from his defenders ahead of the fourth versus third clash against Hearts.
The Perth men can jump ahead of the Jam Tarts by beating them at McDiarmid Park on Saturday in the reverse fixture of the 4-3 Tynecastle thriller on the opening day of the season.
However, Wright believes Saints will only be successful if they can tighten things up at the back.
The manager, who saw his side lose three goals to Celtic last Sunday, said: “From my point of view, we are conceding too many and we have to address it.
“We need to get to grips with that as quickly as possible.
“People will say that you can’t have everything because we are scoring so often but I want more clean sheets.
“Keeping it tight at the back will be the difference in getting a point from some games or even all three from others.
“Nobody would have bet on us to have only one clean sheet by mid-December at the start of the season.
“That’s not something you would have thought we’d do because we have been so strong at the back.
“I was disappointed to lose two goals from set-pieces on Sunday against Celtic because we don’t normally do that.
“As a group we want to address the amount of goals we’ve conceded.
“There is no need to change the way we’re playing because of where we are in the league.
“But what I think is that if we can add clean sheets to the form we’ve been in, then we’d get even more points.
“It’s an easy thing to say and much harder to do, but that’s what we’ve got to aim for.”
Looking back on that high-scoring clash on August 2, Wright added: “The Hearts game on the opening day of the season was more or less a sign of things to come from us.
“We scored a lot of goals and conceded a lot as well.“
Wright reflected on the task his side will face on Saturday, adding: “Hearts showed another side of themselves against Aberdeen, they can play but they can be physical as well when they need to.
“They are capable of doing both sides of the game, they have good footballers but if it turns into a battle they can handle themselves.
“I think they are a very good side and it will be a good game here this weekend because I think we’re similar in that we can play but we love a battle as well.
“Both teams are having good seasons and a win would be a big boost going into the busy festive period.
“Hopefully it’s a good game and if there are seven goals again it’s us who come out with the three points this time.”