St Johnstone’s midweek clash with Hearts gives the Perth side a chance to finish an “up and down” first quarter of the Premiership season on a high.
But Callum Davidson believes the best is yet to come from his McDiarmid Park team.
“Up and down is probably the best way to describe it,” the Saints boss admitted.
“There have been some good performances in there and some good results.
“Listen, we’d like to have more points on the board – which we probably deserve – but we can definitely get better.
“Injuries and some refereeing decisions haven’t helped but I think we’ll come out of this quarter a lot stronger than we’ve been going through it.
“As great as the European games were, they’ve probably been a hindrance to us in the league.
“When they’re in July you don’t have other games to deal with but because we were a bit later, we had the league matches before and after at a time players are getting into the swing of things.
“I’m happy with the strength of the squad now and we just need everybody to stay fit.
“You’ll hopefully see the best of us when the international breaks are out of the way and I can get consistency of team selection.
“I don’t think I’ve been able to pick the same team twice – or if I have, it’s had to be changed pretty quickly.”
Defensive stability
Davidson craves stability in his backline over any other part of his starting XI.
“Throughout my career I’ve always believed in the benefits of not changing the back four or back five if it’s possible, and altering things in midfield and up front,” he said.
“That’s one thing I haven’t been able to do.
“I want to get combinations built all over the pitch.
“You can tweak things but to have a consistent core to your team is very important.”
Liam Gordon and Craig Bryson haven’t suffered any reaction to their comebacks at Celtic Park on Saturday, Davidson confirmed.
And two further key men could also be available to face Hearts.
“Hopefully Murray (Davidson) and Mikey (O’Halloran) will both be back for Wednesday,” he said.
“We’ve got a few other wee niggles but hopefully they’ll all be OK. David Wotherspoon might be the one struggling.”
Davidson added: “The most pleasing thing for me from Saturday’s game was the performances of Liam Gordon and Craig Bryson.
“I didn’t intend to play Liam for the full 90 minutes because he’s only trained for a week but he did really well.
“And that’s Craig’s first competitive game since the Scottish Cup final. Credit to both of them.
“With Craig, it was worth trying to get him back for the big European ties.
“It didn’t work out but that’s football. It happened to me in my career – both when it didn’t come off and when it did. That’s the gamble you take sometimes.
“There are no ill effects from it. He showed he’s good to go now and we’ll make sure we manage him over the next few weeks.”
