St Johnstone came flying out of the traps against Rangers on Sunday.
For the first 25 minutes, they pulled the Gers around the pitch, threading passes to team-mates in suddenly vacated spaces, seemingly at will.
Philippe Clement’s side were forced to tighten up, but Saints remained comfortable in possession, prodding and probing their visitors with intent.
After half-time however, Saints were forced into an increasingly rear-guard action and, as both sides turned to the bench for inspiration, Rangers seized the upper hand.
The Glasgow giants still needed a Jason Holt own-goal to secure all three points, with goalkeeper Josh Rae turning in another strong showing to continue his recent resurgence.
It was a game of contrasts. But what did Saints fans learn from Sunday’s 1-0 loss? Courier Sport has picked out three talking points.
Resurgent Josh Rae
Josh Rae showed guts by fronting up to the media in the run-up to Sunday’s match.
After all, the summer signing from Airdrie had endured a rough start to his time at McDiarmid Park, having initially been in the side, only to lose his place to Ross Sinclair.
An injury to Sinclair at half-time of the 2-1 loss to Hearts in early November saw Rae reclaim the number one spot.
Now, having followed up a rough afternoon in Motherwell with a clean sheet win over Kilmarnock and a save-laden performance against Rangers, he ought to be feeling pretty good about himself.
The 24-year-old, who revealed he was still feeling the effects of a historic head injury after joining Saints, should take plenty of confidence from his last two outings.
He has a rapidly developing defence in front of him (one own-goal conceded in two games is a telling statistic) and when Rangers fired efforts in his direction at McDiarmid Park, he was equal to them.
He has certainly done enough to earn himself a run between the sticks between now and January.
What happens afterwards is up to his manager.
Jack Sanders hits stride
My first reaction to seeing Jack Sanders in action for St Johnstone was almost certainly something like: “He’s a big lad.”
I wasn’t wrong.
But he’s also an increasingly quick lad. And an increasingly-comfortable-on-the-ball lad too.
Twice against Rangers – once in the first-half and once after the break – Sanders strode out of defence with the ball at his feet, beating multiple opposition players and posing a clear threat to Jack Butland’s goal.
Over the years, few Saints managers have enjoyed the luxury of having a centre-half with the ability to beat a man – or men.
Jason Kerr was probably the last one who could do it with any consistency.
Sanders certainly has the physical attributes to make himself difficult to defend against.
If playing under Simo Valakari – and alongside solid again new recruit Bozo Mikulic – affords the former Kilmarnock man more opportunities to push up the park, Sunday’s evidence suggests it won’t be long until he proves his worth up top, as well as at the back.
A squad game
Rangers failed to seize control of Sunday’s game until the second half.
More specifically, they did not come to the fore in the contest until both managers had turned to their benches.
That Rangers have greater strength in depth should shock nobody. Of course they do. They ought to, given the respective budgets fuelling Sunday’s contest.
But once Graham Carey, Nicky Clark, Sven Sprangler, Benji Kimpioka and the luckless Jason Holt had given way, Saints weren’t anywhere near as effective.
Saints minus those key players are a weaker side. It really is that simple.
It’s asking a lot of prospects like Aaron Essel, Lewis Neilson and Max Kucheriavyi, plus barely-seen summer signing Josh McPake and goal-starved Adama Sidibeh, to come on in their place and put the Gers on the back foot.
Why a seasoned, skilful midfielder like Matt Smith, who talked as recently as late October about signing a new deal in Perth, remained an unused substitute is a question for the manager.
Whatever the answer, Saints’ second half showing against Rangers illustrated clearly that Valakari’s squad, even if it doesn’t lack in terms of “heart and soul”, isn’t as strong as he’d like it to be.
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