St Johnstone assistant boss Tommy Wright believes the Perth side’s battling point up in Inverness may have just kept their hopes of a top three finish alive.
Defeat at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium would have seen Saints fall eight points behind Caley going into the post-split fixtures and with it all to do if they are to realise their European ambitions via the league standings.
However, the gap remains at five points after Friday’s goalless draw, and Wright reckons it’s still all to play for in the hunt for third place.
“Motherwell are really in the box seat for the runner-up spot, but I think Ross County, ourselves and Dundee United maybe still think we’ve got an outside chance of beating Inverness to third place,” he said.
“We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t win it, but five points to turn around, it can be done.
“Obviously we’re going to have to do a lot better than we did in the split than we did last season and we’re probably going to need nine points out of the five games minimum to do that.
“The players have done remarkably well to get into the split again and they should be proud of that, but we can’t just accept it. We’ve got to kick on now and try to get as many points as possible on the board and see where that takes us.
“Hopefully it will get us the European spot and if we fall short it will still be a magnificent effort this season.”
Saints finished on the 50-point mark last season and are well on their way to surpassing that this season after amassing 46 points so far.
And while the McDiarmid Park men lost all of their games after the split last year, Wright reckons they are well-placed to avoid a similar scenario this time around.
“We had quite a lot of suspensions in the final stretch last year, we had about five missing, but that’s what’s going to happen,” he said.
“But while Liam Craig is out of the next game and Rowan Vine and Steven MacLean are hovering around the points mark, we should be OK.
“That kind of thing comes in at the end of the season for all clubs. Although we’ve no game this weekend, we’ve got a break and guys like Murray Davidson, Callum Davidson and Gary Miller can get a bit fitter.
“Hopefully we can use that period of time to get more people fit and give us a bigger squad to pick from.”
With a number of important weeks ahead then, Wright maintains everyone in the Saints squad will have to ready themselves for appearances in the final five fixtures.
They include on-loan QPR man Michael Doughty who, according to Wright, has been struggling with illness in recent weeks but remains “very much in the gaffer’s plans”.
“At this stage of the season you want everybody to contribute and everybody to be ready to contribute,” he added.
“If anybody picks up an injury there’s not much time to get fit again. Paddy Cregg has had a really good season but he got suspended. Chris Millar came back and did well coming into central midfield, so Paddy hasn’t been in the team.
“Young Liam Caddis has had a good season in the U20s and maybe he has been a bit unlucky not to get more appearances from the bench. But players have to be ready to seize their chance.
“They’ve got really good team spirit and even though they might be competing for the same position, they all work really well together.”
Saints are due to play a closed doors bounce game against Aberdeen on Thursday to keep themselves ticking over.