There was another dose of festive season misery for St Johnstone supporters to absorb at McDiarmid Park on Boxing Day.
Having gone into the break a goal in front of Dundee United, thanks to Makenzie Kirk’s superb 45th minute finish, the Perth side fell a long way short of the standard they needed to secure a precious victory, succumbing to their opponents in worrying fashion.
It was a dispiriting second half display and further evidence that Saints are in a world of trouble at the bottom of the Premiership.
Courier Sport picks out four talking points.
Pass marks
When St Johnstone were sinking in a sea of self-pity, it was hard to identify players worthy of praise.
Kyle Cameron deserves a mention.
He’s not a left-back but did a decent job of looking like a passable one.
Sven Sprangler was a one-man midfield at times.
Yes, it was his challenge that Glenn Middleton broke through to score United’s equaliser but if others had shared the Austrian’s fight, drive and willingness to receive the ball, there may have been a different outcome to this contest.
Bozo Mikulic is a Premiership standard player who will look even better with more Premiership standard players around him.
And then there was Makenzie Kirk.
Along with Sprangler, Kirk is the only Saints player who has consistently performed better than the expectations you had of him at the start of the season.
His role really should have been that of an impact sub, as was the case in the first couple of months of the campaign.
He’s developed further and quicker than anybody could have hoped and now has five Premiership goals to his name.
And they’ve come in all shapes and sizes.
For Kirk to have gone past Adama Sidibeh and Benji Kimpioka in terms of his value to this St Johnstone side – goals and team ethic – is a feather in his cap.
There are no feathers in the caps of the other two at the moment, let’s just leave it at that.
Goalkeeper
The United equaliser goes into the category of goal conceded where you would want to speak to somebody who has been a goalkeeper before making your mind up whether it was one you would expect to be saved, hope to be saved or neither.
The Hearts winner on Sunday was the same.
In fact, there have been a lot of those for Saints this season. Grey, rather than black and white.
It leads you to the broad conclusion that there have been few, if any, occasions when you have left a game thinking: “The goalie got them a result there.”
In a relegation battle, that’s a problem.
There has been improvement from Josh Rae in his second run of games, compared to his first.
But, with he and Ross Sinclair still prospects rather than finished articles, the need for a points-earner in goal is as obvious now as it should have been to Craig Levein and anybody involved in the McDiarmid Park recruitment operation in the summer.
Width
United are a well-coached team, which plays to its strengths, is effective in both boxes and is improving.
When these teams faced each other in August they were closely matched.
Not now.
A gap in quality and assuredness has opened up.
United exploited one of the St Johnstone weak points expertly.
With this imbalanced squad, Simo Valakari has no option but to attempt to condense a game in the middle third of the pitch.
You can get at Saints out wide and United did.
More often than not, a diagonal ball to the visitors’ left would see the player on the touchline (Middleton) have the time to bring the ball down, take a couple of touches and assess his options.
United scored one goal from that sort of situation and had numerous other promising moments that they didn’t take full advantage of.
St Johnstone aren’t strong at full-back. That’s not a revelation.
But the lack of natural attacking wide players compounds the problem.
United’s left and right-backs had nothing to worry about in their own half so could push on and double up.
It’s a vicious circle which again goes back to poor recruitment in the summer.
Talking of vicious circles….
There was a chaotic, freakish aspect to the defeat to St Mirren.
There was a tactical aspect to the defeat to Hearts.
But this loss to United was by far the most worrying of the three.
Unless St Johnstone are playing Rangers or Celtic, it should never feel inevitable that one goal will lead to another.
That was the case on Thursday, sadly.
Meek summed it up.
This team is the worst in the league.
You could make an argument that they are actually fortunate to not be detached at the bottom already.
With Celtic and a fast-improving Hibs side up next, the festive fixtures have the potential to define St Johnstone’s season and seal their fate.
The Premiership table will affect the manager’s ability to persuade signing targets to join and, if the gap to 11th grows larger, it may also affect the owners’ willingness to throw money in his direction.
Make no mistake, squad surgery is required.
For Saints, there are tests of resolve and ambition everywhere you look.
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