St Johnstone’s woeful home form is bleeding from one season into another.
Perth fans haven’t seen a victory on their own pitch in the league since December 16.
That’s a drought of 11 games and over eight months.
And counting.
Courier Sport picks out three talking points from the latest dose of McDiarmid Park misery, when Craig Levein’s side lost in stoppage time to Motherwell.
No hiding place
“I felt that last year we were a bit vulnerable at set-pieces.
“I want us to be hard to defend against when we’ve got attacking set-pieces and hard to score past at the other end.”
It’s getting on for two months (after the Arbroath friendly) since Levein made this logical observation about last season’s team he inherited and this season’s team he was building.
Unfortunately, Saints still feel far removed from the second bit – unacceptably far.
Goalkeepers making sensible choices about when to intervene and making sure they get a strong contact on the ball when they do so, and outfield players sticking touch-tight to the man they are marking are fundamentals.
But Saints aren’t a team with those fundamentals ingrained.
The free-kick goal at Alloa, the corner goal for Aberdeen, the second for Dundee United and now both of the goals conceded to Motherwell.
For league and cup, Saints are currently averaging higher than one set-piece conceded in every two games.
In the Premiership alone, it’s one per match.
Much of football is about the collective but when it comes to defending from a dead-ball, individual responsibility is never greater and more relevant.
Mistakes – mental and physical – are brutally exposed.
That was the case for Ross Sinclair and Lewis Neilson on Saturday, one failing to connect with his punch and the other letting Dan Casey drift off him at the back post.
This type of defending is debilitating – for St Johnstone players and supporters.
Dread spreads.
And opponents smell blood.
Motherwell won first contact after first contact with their attacking corners.
At the other end, dealt with Saints’ floated, ineffective deliveries with utter ease (the lack of threat Levein’s side carry in the opposition box is a chapter all of its own).
Alarmingly, instead of progressing from one season to the next with set-pieces, Saints are regressing.
The goalies
The goalkeeping situation is a real issue.
Saints were unfortunate that Craig Hinchliffe followed Dimitar Mitov to Pittodrie and then Ryan Esson barely got himself familiarised with the back pitches at McDiarmid Park before deciding to return to the Highlands.
But, even if no blame can be attached for those two coaches walking away, there can be little doubt that a leadership vacuum is contributing to a general feeling of instability surrounding a specialised position.
It’s a team within a team. And there’s nobody in charge of it.
Levein has taken a gamble by not recruiting an experienced goalie.
Whether he’ll seek to change direction over the next few weeks if there are suitable free agent remedies available, time will tell.
But, with the three keepers he currently has at his disposal, he made the correct call in standing Josh Rae down.
It was right that Ross Sinclair got a chance and, had Casey not been allowed to roam free in injury-time, the post-match story would have been of the former Scotland under-21 international redeeming himself after an early error and playing a big part in earning his team a point.
After the opening goal, Sinclair produced a sound display, peaking with two superb saves shortly before the winner.
He certainly wasn’t at fault for the second goal.
He deserves a sustained shot at claiming the jersey and, hopefully by the time Saints resume their season at Easter Road, he’ll have a goalie coach to lean on.
The start is over
Establishing how long the ‘start’ to a season lasts isn’t an exact science.
The opening run of games before the first international break, which has now been completed, feels as good a definition as any.
If the start is over, you certainly couldn’t claim St Johnstone have made a good one.
Not disastrous, but it’s been lacking substantial evidence to suggest this season is going to be any different to the previous two.
The defensive vulnerabilities mentioned above are extremely concerning – so too the lack of tempo before the subs came on against Motherwell.
Jason Holt will knit things together in the middle of the pitch – his half-hour on Saturday showed that.
But an imposing centre-half needs to be identified.
That will be more achievable in the free agent market than finding a good to go goalie but no easy task nonetheless.
Adama Sidibeh’s aggression and dynamism was missed in the Motherwell match and now Saints’ best central defender so far, Jack Sanders, is also suspended.
The next four-game chunk of the season includes clashes with both Glasgow teams.
If Saints are still out of the bottom two, that will represent success.
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