St Johnstone are surging up the Premiership table on the back of three wins in a row.
But playmaker Graham Carey believes the best of the Perth side this season is still to come.
Nothing throws a team into the spotlight quite like a victory against one half of the Old Firm.
Sunday’s live TV defeat of Rangers – the first at McDiarmid Park in well over a decade – has done just that.
Carey, though, is convinced there’s plenty of room for improvement in the sixth-placed Saints.
And they’ll be looking to show it against the Irishman’s old club, St Mirren, on Wednesday night.
“In a few games we’ve played poorly and won,” said Carey. “We can still improve a lot.
“The difference this year is we’ve played badly at times but are picking up three points.
“We believe in ourselves because we do have good players.
“If we keep the ball for longer periods then we’ll cause teams a lot of trouble.”
He added: “We dealt with St Mirren well at McDiarmid Park earlier in the season.
“But no doubt they will want a bit of revenge for that so it will be tough.
“Both teams are level on points so it’s a big game.”
Strong platform
Carey is in the team to help get Saints up the pitch and open up defences.
But he’s a big admirer of the work the defenders and wing-backs are doing behind him, with their performance against Rangers the latest example.
“The stats show they were on top for most of the game but we knew that was going to happen because they have quality players,” he said.
“We stuck to the game-plan and it worked out well for us on the counter-attack.
👊 𝘼𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙮 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙠
🔜 Next up is St Mirren on Wednesday night.
🎟 All ticket information here: https://t.co/0jYh2mNiOZ#SJFC | @spfl | @nickyclark91 pic.twitter.com/bCv1pBpjL5
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) November 7, 2022
“We spoke at half-time that we hadn’t been good with the ball when we did win it back.
“We needed a bit of composure and I thought we were better with that in the second half.
“We can still improve with the ball but defensively and as a unit we were really strong.”
An 11k run
Had Carey’s legs been fresher he’d probably have scored a third for Saints in the closing stages.
“I was out for five weeks so I’m still getting back up to full fitness,” he said.
“I didn’t need that run at the end after doing about 11k! That’s how much it felt like, anyway.
“It would’ve been nice to get a goal but the most important thing was the win.”
Saints are now 10 points above bottom side, Dundee United.
It’s a gap which makes a mockery of widespread relegation predictions.
“I don’t think that bothered us,” said Carey.
“We signed a lot of new players and the experience brought in has been huge for the younger ones.
“We’ve developed a different mindset and go into every game knowing we have the quality to win.
“Last year the team was probably guilty of looking behind them too much.
“Now we’re taking each game as it comes and it’s a big one against St Mirren.”
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