St Johnstone have made their biggest statement of the season so far.
Beating Motherwell back-to-back at McDiarmid Park was one thing.
But taking three points from a St Mirren side buoyed by thrashing Aberdeen that had been Saints’ nemesis in Paisley over recent years raised the bar.
The winless run away to the Buddies had reached double figures before this match and the style of play honed by Stephen Robinson over several seasons has been shown to be too effective for either Steven MacLean or Craig Levein to cope with.
The same was the case in Simo Valakari’s second game in charge.
In short, St Mirren have been all wrong for St Johnstone on the road.
So, this 1-0 victory – who it came against and where it was achieved – will inflate Perth confidence and catch the attention of the other bottom six clubs who would have been thinking at the turn of the year they didn’t need to concern themselves with the threat of automatic relegation.
Courier Sport picks out four talking points from the contest.
Managing chaos
There were a lot of imponderables at play for Valakari in the build-up.
Jack Sanders leaving and Benji Kimpioka leaving then not leaving were a distraction.
Uncertainty over Daniels Balodis getting his work permit clearance hung over the latter half of the week, all the way up to Saturday lunchtime when there was still hope.
Then, Jonathan Svedberg and, more significantly, Andy Fisher were the latest Saints players to be confined to their beds with illness.
Finding order amongst that sort of chaos was no easy task.
The likes of Drey Wright and Sven Sprangler will have been training with plans A , B and maybe even C in their heads, with it falling to Valakari and his coaching staff to make sure they were prepared for different scenarios.
It’s a credit to a number of people that, with everything going on (and going wrong) a game plan was put together and executed as expertly as St Johnstone’s.
Other than a spell around the half-hour mark when the set-piece count was rising to a worrying level, there wasn’t the sort of sustained barrage of the Saints box that has become familiar in this fixture.
The makeshift back-three and goalkeeper spine of the time was as solid as it needed to be, and only on a couple of rare occasions did the visitors fall into the pressing traps St Mirren like to set.
Bozo Mikulic’s winning goal had a bit of good fortune to it but, at worst, this was heading to a 0-0, which would still have been a creditable result.
Saints looked a superbly coached team, with players following their head coach’s instructions equally as impressively.
If this is the standard they are reaching before the transfer business is concluded, and when a sickness bug is sweeping through the dressing room, it bodes well for the remainder of the season when the havoc has abated.
Cometh the hour
Without needing to be spectacular, Andy Fisher has been the calming figure St Johnstone have desperately needed in goal.
And he was probably only behind the only recognised centre-back, Mikulic, in the ‘can’t afford to be without’ category for this match.
It is to Ross Sinclair’s immense credit that Fisher’s absence wasn’t a story.
I would make him man of the match for that very reason, which might seem strange to those who haven’t watched the team regularly this season.
But Saints fans know not to take goalkeeping fundamentals for granted and Sinclair showcased all of them.
When the assistant referee raised his flag for offside after he produced a superb fourth minute save to deny Mikael Mandron, you didn’t grasp just how significant that moment was.
You did after watching the highlights and seeing that VAR would have allowed the goal to stand had Mandron scored.
Sinclair was called upon to operate as an auxiliary outfield player a lot and his first-time passing off both feet was exemplary.
Twice in the second half, he was decisive, authoritative (and correct) to come a long way to deal with a high ball into the box – a sign of growing confidence.
And it was the ultimate tribute to his display, and the fact that St Mirren didn’t look upon him as a potential weak link to expose, that when they loaded the penalty area for an injury time corner, with their own goalkeeper up, they opted for an out-swinger, rather than whipping the ball into the six-yard box.
It was Sinclair’s most important performance for St Johnstone and his best – and he produced it after three months of inactivity.
It will give Valakari great reassurance for the remainder of the season.
Sinclair has been the victim of cruel misfortune on the injury front and mismanagement of the goalkeeping situation in the summer and autumn.
He was, and is, a highly promising young goalie and has just made a big step forward in his career.
It was great to see him in the heart of those post-match celebrations in front of his own people.
Quarterback Watt
As with Sam Curtis and Victor Griffith before him, Elliot Watt wasn’t afforded the luxury of easing himself into the St Johnstone first team.
Recruiting players ready to hit the ground running has been a Valakari January mantra.
Watt’s technical ability, decision-making and composure were going to be severely tested in this fixture of all fixtures.
Illness denied the Swede that opportunity but the same “they’ll come at you again and again” rules applied to Watt.
Yes, he was robbed of the ball too close to his own 18-yard line for comfort on a couple of occasions.
As much as you tell players you don’t have the same time on the ball in the Scottish Premiership compared to the English lower leagues, players crossing the border northwards need to experience it for themselves.
However, those examples were the exception rather than the rule.
Watt showcased every attribute of a passing central midfielder that you hoped he would.
He’s a tempo setter and controller.
The Burton Albion loan signing’s appreciation of space and angles was the highest of any player on either side.
He didn’t have many opportunities to drop a pass between centre-half and full-back for a runner from wide but on the one occasion that ball was on – at the end of the first half – he identified it instantly and Graham Carey didn’t have to break stride to accept it.
Valakari now has real midfield options.
The recruitment in that area has allowed him the scope to deploy a quarterback. It should elevate this team.
Gaps still to fill
With the closure of the transfer window now looming, the work isn’t yet done.
No more centre-halves will be leaving but Valakari still needs a right-sided one.
Will Benji Kimpioka depart?
Oud-Heverlee Leuven won’t be back in – that ship has sailed.
It was a very lucrative offer – to a league and club that would have represented a sensible career choice for Kimpioka.
But, as Valakari pointed, out “only Benji knows”. It’s hard to imagine a better option coming his way before Monday night but deadline day desperation does strange things to managers under pressure.
Even if he stays, though, he will have a job on his hand earning Valakari’s trust for the last few months of his time in Perth.
So, I would like to see a robust, hold-up expert brought in regardless of the Kimpioka situation.
With the back-three looking like a set-up here to stay, and Barry Douglas now a strong option at the left side of it, Valakari probably only needs one winger as opposed to two.
Ideally, that player will be able to operate as a wing-back as well.
The big thing in Valakari’s favour now is that the pitch to his targets is a lot easier at the end of the window than it was at the beginning.
He and his players deserve huge credit for that.
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