Kyle Cameron insists St Johnstone are ‘striving’ to become a top six Premiership side.
Saints are a team transformed in terms of intent under new manager Simo Valakari.
Performances are vastly improved and confidence is on the rise amongst the squad.
While wins are not yet arriving as frequently as anybody at McDiarmid Park would like, there is a feeling that the club’s fortunes are on the up after three seasons spent fighting relegation.
For Cameron, it feels like a matter of time until the sort of results Saints’ performances merit start to arrive.
“100% we’re looking up the table,” he said.
“That little run we went on when we lost three games in a row to St Mirren, Hearts and Motherwell, if you play those games again, I reckon we could have come away with five, six points possibly.
“We’ve been a little bit unlucky, but I think you can see things are changing.
“The performances are getting better, we’re in games for longer.
“I definitely think we’re looking up and the top six is something we have to try to strive for.
“We’ll keep putting performances in, one week at a time, one game at a time, then once we’re at 30 games, we’ll see where we are then.”
Cameron, a summer arrival from Notts County, was made club captain by previous boss Craig Levein, despite his status as a loan player.
Valakari handed the armband to Nicky Clark while Cameron was injured, early in the Finn’s tenure as boss.
Clark was then made skipper on a permanent basis.
Cameron can now admit that accepting the armband in the summer was perhaps not the right move.
But he insists he has no issues at all with Clark’s rise – and is impressed with the job the striker is doing.
“It’s been fine,” Cameron said of the transition.
“I came in and was given the captaincy, which was a bit of a surprise and a shock.
“In hindsight, I maybe should have said no because there are obviously full-time lads here who are signed, but it’s not in my character to turn an opportunity like that down.
“I tried to take it with both hands but, with the new manager coming in, I knew it was a possibility [that the captaincy could change] and with the timing, me being injured, it was a smooth transition for Nicky to go in – and he’s doing a great job.
“I’ve got no qualms or issues with that. And it probably takes a little bit of pressure away from me.
“With everyone expecting 10 out of 10 performances every week when you’re on loan and you’re the captain, that puts a bit of pressure on you.
“Now, I just do the same as I always have done; try to drive standards in training and kicking the lads on, which is something I’ll do whether I’ve got the armband on or not.”
Cameron, who stepped into the side for the injured Bozo Mikulic at Pittodrie, now sees the starting role as his to lose.
And he is relishing life under Valakari, whose commitment to retaining possession has resulted in big changes day-to-day.
Cameron said: “I think you can by the performances that things have changed quite a lot.
“We want to try to be more of a possession-based team and build up from the back, which we can do.
“It was a little bit more difficult in Aberdeen with the conditions and being away from home, but I think we showed a different side to our game, with a really tough, rugged performance.
“Every day in training the standards are very high. The manager’s very hands on – he’s doing a lot of tactical and technical work with the lads and speaking to us all the time.
“So you haven’t got time to switch off. It’s 100% every single day – and that’s how it should be.”
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