Finishing fourth in the Premiership would be “like winning the title” for St Johnstone, according to manager Tommy Wright.
With top six football in the bag for another season, the Perth boss claimed that the pressure is off his team as they strive for what is likely to be the final European place.
And, even though he is sticking to the one game at a time mindset, he is well aware that a five-point gap could be opened up at the weekend between Saints and fifth-placed Hearts by the time Ian Cathro’s men come to McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night.
“As a manager I look ahead in terms of planning but the players are only focused on Hamilton on Saturday,” Wright said.
“This is a massive game for us. There is an opportunity here to go five points clear of Hearts with a win, before they play Celtic on Sunday.
“They have the squad capable of getting something from Celtic but they could be coming here five points behind us. First and foremost, though, we have to go out and perform.
“There is absolutely no pressure on us. Everyone would say it had been another great season for St Johnstone if we finished fifth or sixth.
“But you look at the table just now and it is Celtic, Aberdeen Rangers and St Johnstone. We have talked about it and if the league was to finish in that order it would be like winning the title for a club like us.
“It would certainly be winning a league within a league because Celtic and Aberdeen have improved and Rangers have improved the league whether or not people might think they have under achieved. And Hearts have gone out and spent money, with other clubs working hard to get better.
“No one has been cut adrift at the bottom, unlike Dundee United were last season. It has been tighter.
“So for us to be sitting seven points off Rangers in third with their budget at this stage is incredible.”
Saints were strong at the back end of last season, giving Wright confidence for this campaign’s final few laps.
“We normally finish a season well,” he said. “And hopefully the experience of run-ins with something to play for will stand us in good stead. We did extremely well last year after the split.
“We are in a good position at the right end of the table and challenging for fourth place when we didn’t think that just a few months ago.
“Depending on the cup, fourth could get us back into Europe. But every team has something to play for. It has been very competitive this season.
“We have done great to claw back the gap on Hearts when they were sitting in second place and on a high after beating Rangers. We were thinking they would kick on but they have had a wobble.
“We have played in fits and starts but have picked up important wins when they were really needed.
“So we have put ourselves in a good position, two points ahead of Hearts.”
On tomorrow’s clash with the bottom of the table side, Wright said: “I don’t look at their league position. They have a good squad with players who can hurt you.
“They haven’t had the results they would have wanted but have put in some very good performances. We know we can’t just turn up to win. They beat a good Aberdeen side there recently and that is a warning to us.
“The good thing is that our performances away from home have been really consistent. Other than Celtic we have the best away record in the league.
“But we know it’s going to take another good away performance to get three points from this game.”
David Wotherspoon, Steven Anderson and Zander Clark could all be available, with Steven MacLean stood down for this one as expected.
