St Johnstone had to wait 10 games for their first league win of the season.
But it only took 10 more days for one to become two.
In between those victories over Kilmarnock and Ross County there was a draw with Motherwell.
And, if you want to go back further into the Steven MacLean era, Saints have only lost one of their last six matches.
They are off the bottom of the table and momentum is building.
Courier Sport picks out three talking points from Saturday’s 1-0 triumph against Malky Mackay’s men.
Big selection decisions
There was only one change to the Saints starting line-up from Tuesday to Saturday but there were two bold Craig Levein calls revealed an hour before kick-off.
You wouldn’t have found many supporters predicting Sven Sprangler would be benched nor that James Brown would be restored.
The Austrian has hit the ground running at McDiarmid Park since he finally got home office permission to play.
He’s an out and out defensive midfielder and, even though his form has dipped a bit of late, going Sprangler-less in the middle of the park was a risk.
It worked out very well indeed.
Matt Smith just keeps getting better and better, while Dan Phillips proved to be an ideal central midfield partner on this occasion after being brought back inside from his midweek wing-back role.
County never threatened to overrun Saints on this key battleground.
Often they tried to bypass it.
Combined with the third playmaker in the side, Graham Carey, that trio gave Saints far more control and creativity than the Highlanders.
It produced the goal and decided the game.
Brown, meanwhile, has toiled this season.
St Mirren away was the low point but Easter Road wasn’t much better.
This was.
Luke Robinson was more effective on the other flank as an attacking outlet but Brown needed to rebuild his confidence and prioritise defensive diligence.
Levein said there would be a clean slate.
Brown’s selection was proof of that.
His performance was points-winning validation of that strategy.
A special goal
It’s not often you’re faced with a difficult choice to describe a goal as a great team goal or a great individual one.
Carey’s was both.
The start of the move summed up the Smith effect – setting in motion a quick change in the point of attack that showcased his international class.
Robinson taking the hand-brake off and going past his man in the opposition box and Stevie May (as impactive as he’s been for weeks, replacing Nicky Clark) getting his head up to pick out Carey were other crucial links in the chain.
And then came a high tariff finish, the like of which the Irishman hasn’t produced since 16 months ago at Tynecastle.
Levein will love the fact he’s got an edge of box, full of confidence game-changer in his team now.
He’ll probably love even more that he’s got a team that can cut a defence open with slick and incisive pass and move football.
Kirk time
It wouldn’t be the last game before an international break if a manager didn’t get a ‘good time or bad time for a fortnight off’ question.
When your team has just won two and drawn one, it would be understandable if there was an urge to keep going and a fear of interrupting an unbeaten streak.
Levein didn’t need time to mull over the pros and cons, though.
It was an unequivocal “good time” response.
He and Andy Kirk wisely restricted themselves to minor tweaks and adjustments in their first week at the club.
They didn’t have any other option really.
They do now, though.
And the good news is that the training ground work over the next couple of weeks won’t involve crisis management and piecing together shattered confidence.
There are several players who can now claim to have put together three very good performances in a row.
And the team as a whole looks built to last 90-plus minutes at last.
It will be fascinating to see the imprint Kirk, in particular, can now start to make on Saints’ style of play, evolving it from a position of relative strength.
Chapter one of the Levein era was a short and successful one.
Chapter two begins at Tynecastle of all places.
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