St Johnstone produced their best 90-minute performance of the season to beat Motherwell convincingly, according to manager Callum Davidson.
Davidson believed the 2-0 victory which ended a seven-game losing run was a reward for character shown when the going got tough.
And the rest of the season can now be attacked with optimism after his team opened up a gap of seven points to the bottom of the Premiership table.
“I’m delighted to get the three points,” said Davidson.
“We have been on a difficult run where we probably haven’t played as badly as the results have shown.
“I look back at those seven games and there were two Rangers, one Celtic and one Hearts. We nearly got something out of them all.
“What I will say about the players is that they never let their heads go down.
“The last two Rangers games they played with a real togetherness and energy.
“It was tough being on that run but they showed great character.
“It was our most complete performance of the season.”
Back to a back three
Davidson reverted to a back-three for the Fir Park contest and the game couldn’t have gone much better for Saints after Drey Wright’s early opener.
“The front three worked really hard to stop Motherwell from playing,” said Davidson.
“We flipped to a back three again and we can go both systems now.
“We had a lot of players on the bench I could have brought on too.
“We have a tough game on Sunday (against Celtic) but we will enjoy the positive things from today.
“We enjoyed the pitch because McDiarmid is not like that. Our away form is better. The boys enjoyed themselves.
“I’m pleased for the fans who came down on a horrible night.”
Nicky Clark played a big part in the superb Saints display, and set-up the first goal, after having his sending off at Ibrox over-turned at the start of the day.
“The appeal was well worth it,” said Davidson. “Nicky is a really important player for us.
“Listen, I didn’t think it was a red so I am glad he played tonight.”
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