All the talk from Edinburgh this week will be of a new manager bounce when Hearts meet St Johnstone in the first game of the Daniel Stendel era.
Saints boss Tommy Wright won’t be paying much attention, though.
His only focus is making sure his players have the same spring in their step leaving Tynecastle as they will when they arrive.
A 0-0 draw at Kilmarnock made it eight points in six games for the Perth men and the solid performance, complete with clean-sheet, was another sign that the “character” needed to dig themselves out of a relegation battle is in the McDiarmid Park camp.
“I’m not really bothered about what Hearts do between now and Saturday,” said Wright.
“My concern and focus is St Johnstone and looking to get three points from the game.
“They have a new manager in but he will have the same squad of players to work with.
“Whether he changes the shape or not doesn’t really matter.
“We are quite adaptable in term of players that can move into different positions if we feel we might be caught out with their shape.
“They will want to impress their new manager and be up for the game.
“Their fans will be behind them because a new manager has come in.
“So I am expecting a tough game. They will want to make things really difficult for us.
“But we are going there after showing a lot of character to go away and get a good point at Kilmarnock.
“We will be concentrating this week on what we can do to influence the game.
“That will be our main focus.”
Wright added: “Tynecastle is one my favourite grounds to go it.
“There is always a good atmosphere.
“The fans get a good experience because they are so close to the pitch.
“It is a difficult venue to go to even when Hearts are struggling, like ourselves.”
Saints now have a run of games against other sides with relegation concerns.
Every one of the four – Hearts, St Mirren, Hamilton Accies and Ross County – is a “six-pointer”, according to Wright.
“We have to try and build some momentum in these last four games before the break,” he said.
“We have to pick up as many points as possible but it has to be one game at a time.
“This is a big hurdle so we have to make sure we put in a similar performance to the one at Kilmarnock.
“The character of the team can’t be questioned.
“We had a clean sheet which pleased me and we weren’t under much pressure.
“Where we have to improve is being more clinical in the final third.
“We have seen with Hibs what two or three wins on the bounce does for you.
“All the teams in the bottom six will be looking for wins before the end of the year.
“You could argue our next four games are all six-pointers because they are in and around us in the league table.”
