St Johnstone midfielder Dan Phillips has vowed to blank out uncertainty over his long-term future as he seeks to help secure the Perth club’s Premiership status.
The Trinidad and Tobago international will be out of contract in the summer.
Courier Sport understands that the Perth club made offers to extend his deal early this season when Steven MacLean was still manager and again in January.
There were no bids that tempted them to cash-in last month but the 23-year-old’s next career move still remains in doubt.
For the player himself, though, having tunnel vision will not be a problem.
“To be honest, I don’t pay any attention to my contract stuff,” said Phillips.
“I leave that to my agent.
“My job is to play as well as I can every game, work hard in training and keep my head down.”
Back to business
Phillips missed four of Saints’ first six games after the mid-season break as a result of muscle tightness.
But he was back in the team for Sunday’s clash with Rangers, lasting the full 90 minutes and performing well.
“I came back a bit too soon maybe because I was so eager to play,” he said.
“I’ve been well looked after and I’m feeling really good now.
“It was great to be back playing and hopefully I’ll get a long run of games now through to the end of the season.
Saints have lost three Premiership matches in a row, with Livingston closing the gap on them to eight points at the weekend.
Phillips, though, believes they’ve got the right manager to successfully navigate a relegation battle.
“He keeps us level headed and calm,” he said.
“The manager has really steadied the ship.
“He’s got us more solid and playing with a lot of discipline.
“That should stand us in good stead.
“If we carry on the way we’re going I’m sure we’ll have a positive end to the season.
“We only need to be looking at ourselves, not the teams just below or above us.
“We know that if we hit the standards we expect then we’ll move up the table.
“That’s our only focus.”
‘Doing a lot right’
Phillips certainly didn’t view the defeat to Rangers as a damaging setback.
“I think the result flattered them a bit,” he said.
“But from our point of view, we can’t get too disappointed at losing to a team like Rangers.
“They didn’t have a shot on target until they scored so that showed we were doing a lot right.
“Then it was two VAR penalties in the second half.
“VAR hasn’t been kind to us lately but we just have to get in with it.
“Defensively, I thought we were good. We stuck to our plan very well.
“But we had to open up a bit in the last 20 minutes because we had to throw more at them to try and get a goal.
“It’s not the result we wanted obviously but at the same time we can be proud of our performance.”
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