Another false dawn for St Johnstone was exposed at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
The grasp of football basics, the expertly executed tactics and the sense of purpose that underlined the Perth side’s superb victory at Easter Road seven days earlier largely deserted them in their defeat to Kilmarnock.
There had been genuine cause for cautious optimism that Saints were building upward momentum in time to avoid a nerve-shredding finale to the season.
That balloon has been burst.
Courier Sport picks out three talking points from the last of the pre-split matches.
Familiar failings
When it goes wrong for St Johnstone, there’s nothing revelatory anymore.
Themes that have been at the root of many a defeat this season were on show once again.
There was a hesitant start, playing like a team trying to edge their way into the contest while letting their opponents settle, rather than seizing the initiative.
There was the punishment dished out for not stopping a cross for the first goal and not winning a header for the second.
There was the lack of creativity on the flanks, with two left-backs on one side and a big open space in front of David Keltjens with nobody filling it on the other.
And, as the post-match data confirmed, Nicky Clark dropped even deeper than midfielders Matt Smith and Max Kucheriavyi to get himself involved.
With Adama Sidibeh’s decision-making and hold-up play not as good as it had been in the previous two matches, there was little attacking fluency apart from a few bursts in the first 20 minutes of the second half.
All in all, given the incentive and the stakes, it made for dispiriting viewing.
You get what you pay for
There can be no doubt that Derek McInnes was playing cards with a far stronger hand than Craig Levein.
The ex-Saints boss had far more money to spend in the summer than Steven MacLean and far more than Levein to top-up his squad in January.
Unlike with Hibs and Aberdeen, at Kilmarnock, that investment has been put to good use.
Killie’s bench had at least six players who would enhance St Johnstone’s starting line-up.
Kevin van Veen was only brought on two minutes before the end of normal time.
There’s an art to keeping players who would expect more action happy and McInnes is mastering it.
“The reason we are where we are in the league is because of the squad,” he said. “When we have had to make a change or two, the levels haven’t gone down.
“There are good players not playing at the moment. It’s hard to keep them motivated but credit to them, they keep going and keep putting their hand up ready to play.
“Sometimes as a manager you don’t always have the answers to change it.
“When I needed more energy today I had it, when I needed a left-sided centre back to come on when Joe Wright gets injured, I’ve got someone like Robbie Deas. When I needed to try see the game out, I’ve got Corrie Ndaba who played 80% of the games and when I need a striker, I’ve got a choice of Greg Stewart and Kevin van Veen.
“I’m very fortunate to have the players we’ve got.”
MacLean didn’t even bother throwing his hat in the ring to sign free agent Deas in the summer. He couldn’t hope to get close to the wages Killie would table.
And on Saturday, Deas was effectively the Rugby Park side’s fourth-choice centre-back.
For both teams, money spent in the last two transfer windows showed.
What next?
It’s too late for the much talked about consistency (in a positive sense) to be found.
Even if Saints do win more of their last five than they lose, the fact a couple of the fixtures will be against teams with little at stake has to come into the equation.
But the battle to stay ahead of Ross County – the sole target – is very much a live one. It would have been even if the gap was still four points but County are now just one behind and will rightly think if they can beat Rangers, they can beat any and everyone in the bottom six.
Saints fans will need to hope that their team can, at the very least, continue to sporadically mix the good with the bad and the ugly.
If home and away numbers are to match-up, they will end up going to Pittodrie for a third time and have County and Hibs as their two remaining McDiarmid fixtures.
That may be no bad thing because the trend of the first half of the season has flipped.
These days, Saints look a far better bet to win on the road.
And the good news is they are leading the head-to-heads with three of their opponents (Aberdeen, Hibs and Ross County) and are level in the other two (Motherwell and Livingston).
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