St Johnstone have had a “massive wake-up call”, according to veteran defender Andy Considine.
And the Perth side need to cast off any lingering feeling that they had lifted themselves away from Premiership relegation danger.
Considine admitted Saints haven’t been good enough since the mid-season break.
Now, the key to securing their top-flight status will be getting to grips with the fundamentals of football which deserted them in their “powder-puff” weekend defeat to St Mirren.
“We struggled to string passes together throughout the game,” said Considine.
“If you can’t do the basics then you’re going to find it hard.
“We didn’t win many battles, didn’t pass the ball well enough, didn’t win second balls, when we did get balls into the box they weren’t good enough and anything that did come in we didn’t get on the end of.
“The only opportunity was a shot from Matty (Smith) at the end of the second half.
“Other than that we had nothing.
“We were powder-puff – very little fight.
“I felt they over-ran us, especially in midfield and came through us in droves at times.”
Saints have played eight games since the winter interval and have only won one of them.
“I don’t know if there’s been a thought of ‘we’re going to be OK’ and that we’d done enough already,” said Considine.
“There are 11 games to go and we’re right in the thick of it.
“County (who beat Livingston 3-2) are only a couple of points behind us now.
“The bottom line is that the next team that goes on the park has to go back to basics, do them better than we did today and fight for our lives.
“That’s literally the story from now until the middle of May.
“We’ve not been good enough for a number of weeks.
“Yes, there’s been a couple of decent results and a couple of average ones.
“But the majority of it hasn’t been good enough – across the board.
“If you ever wanted a massive wake-up call, today was it.”
‘Absolutely desperate’ for a win
Saints travel to Pittodrie in midweek to face Considine’s old club, Aberdeen, themselves in the middle of a mini-crisis.
“There’s a lot at stake on Wednesday night, of course,” he said.
“We know what Aberdeen are capable of but the scary thing for me is that I know what we’re capable of as well because I see it day in and day out on the training field.
“We’re just not producing it on a Saturday.
“It was quite worrying at times the way we couldn’t put passes together.
“It’s a huge game coming up.
“Both teams are absolutely desperate for a win. Absolutely desperate.
“We have to fight for the whole game and get a result. It’s as simple as that.”
Sidibeh shock
Meanwhile, the sight of Adama Sibibeh collapsing on the pitch in Paisley put everything in perspective.
“None of us were sure what had happened,” said Considine.
“He was sitting up while he was waiting for the ambulance and obviously we were all really concerned and we’re all hoping he makes a full recovery.
“Things like that are much bigger than football.”
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