January has been a “character-building” month for St Johnstone, according to Dan Phillips.
And the young midfielder believes the Perth squad will reap the rewards in February.
Saints’ 2-0 defeat to Rangers on Saturday extended their losing run to seven in league and cup.
But Phillips feels the performance levels against the second best side in the country on successive weekends is a more accurate indicator of where his team sit just now.
Beating Motherwell on Wednesday night will reinforce his point.
“We always believe we can go out and get a result,” said Phillips.
“But it’s been a tough month, definitely, and for us we are just focused on the next game.
“I’d say it’s been a character-building month.
“You can see from where we started the month to now, the results may not show it but the performances show there has been a lot of growth and development.
“It’s easy to come here, a big stadium against a big team, have a penalty given against you and go down to 10 men after what, 30 minutes, and let Rangers run away with the game.
“But I don’t think we did that at all. We showed the character and the spirit we have in us.
“If we apply ourselves like that in the upcoming games we’ll be confident of picking up some points.
“Over the last two games I think we’ve shown we deserve to be in that top six and pushing.
“We’re trying to go in the right direction.
“We don’t want to put too much pressure on the Motherwell game. Every match is important to us and we take it one game at a time.
“We’ll go into it with the intent to win, play well and put this bad run of form behind us.”
Ibrox compare and contrast
Phillips made his debut at Ibrox in August as an early replacement for Cammy MacPherson.
He lacked match fitness at the time having been without a club in pre-season and Saturday’s display was a favourable contrast individually and collectively.
“I think we come out of this game disappointed because for 60 minutes we have gone toe to toe with Rangers with 10 men and we’ve battled really well,” said the Trinidad and Tobago international.
“We’re disappointed with the result but we’re proud of the performance and the energy we put in.
“It was miles apart from the last one here in the summer.
“We took the game to them and got on the ball a lot. We were very confident and positive with possession and in our intent.
“Even with 10 men you could see that we wanted to go out and attack rather than sit back and soak up pressure.
Build the team around Dan Phillips… Great Callum signing and showing it 💪💪
— James Mackie (@jamesiemack) January 28, 2023
“It’s night and day for me personally.
“I feel much better and fitter when I’m on the pitch – I can get around and get on the ball.
“Hopefully I stay fit and that continues.”
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