The gulf between the St Johnstone of December and the Ross County of December was vast.
Their clash at McDiarmid Park three days before Christmas wasn’t a contest of equals or near equals, even though the Premiership table suggested it should be.
It was a team on its knees against a team finding rhythm and a way to get the best out of their two star men.
So the manner in which the Perth side matched their opponents for 45 minutes of the weekend’s return match, looking in control for much of it, shouldn’t be overlooked.
This time it was a contest, or half a contest, of equals.
But the second period was a painful reminder that for all that Saints are a side making progress, they are still a side that can’t be trusted to overcome adversity.
Ross County moved seven points clear of St Johnstone at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table 🏴
The Staggies came from behind to win 3-1 👏 pic.twitter.com/aAy8pPzx7g
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) February 26, 2022
In a relegation battle, that’s a pretty fundamental and debilitating flaw.
Get in front of them (or sometimes just get on top of them) and the high probability is you’ve got them.
The defending intensity plummets, the voices go quieter, the avenues to counter-attack close and the forwards become isolated and under-used.
It all adds up to a creeping inevitability.
Box after box was ticked in Dingwall.
Three men failing to deal with a long-throw for County’s second encapsulated the timidity that all too often haunts this season’s St Johnstone.
All in the mind
There is a significant pre and post-winter break difference to the recurring theme, however.
The 2021 drop-offs, of which there were many, were borne out of a combination of basic playing issues and mindset.
Now, as Saturday’s first half proved, it’s just the latter.
There is no other conclusion that can be reached after a team sent out with the instructions to seize the initiative (wind behind them and attacking a goal with over 500 of their supporters behind it) retreats into itself.
That doesn’t make a collapse more palatable.
If anything, it makes it more frustrating.
And, for Callum Davidson, more perplexing.
Selecting the best players to make his system work, and seeing standards rise on the back of it, has been far easier after the January recruitment business.
Getting into their heads and deciding which of them are likeliest to go under when the tide turns against them is now the job in hand.
In short, this has become a battle of the mind.
Is the transfer window closed for hiring a sports psychologist?
