St Johnstone have turbo-charged their Premiership survival bid to set-up up a titanic Tayside derby on Saturday.
With Dundee losing to Motherwell, Saints’ 1-0 defeat of Ross County has closed the gap between 12th and 11th in the league table to just three points.
The Perth side will now have the chance to go level with their local rivals at Dens Park this weekend thanks to Makenzie Kirk’s goal.
And manager Simo Valakari revealed that the first man into the home dressing to celebrate the victory was Bozo Mikulic, who will be out for up to nine months after rupturing his ACL on the training ground.
“Bozo is seeing a specialist on Thursday and will get an operation,” said Valakari. “He will be out for eight or nine months.
“But he was straight in there celebrating with the players in the dressing-room afterwards.
“We talked before the game about when things are not going well it’s easy to get depressed and be negative.
“But you are playing football with your friends, so come on, play with happiness and freedom.
“We are in a difficult situation and there are not many games left, but let’s try to enjoy this.
“It’s a good turnaround for Saturday – that game will come quickly now and we have to recover in time for that.
“We didn’t get too down when we lost to Hearts and we won’t get too high now.
“We need points to keep ourselves in the fight because everything can change so quickly in this league.
“Nothing has changed. On Saturday it won’t matter what we did on Wednesday night – we need to be at our best again.”
Valakari added: “It’s an important three points.
“A lot of people were talking about it being a must win game.
“I don’t know about that – but it was important because we need to pick up points.
“The thing that made me most happy was the way the players performed in the pressure they’re under.
“It would have been easy to panic – and the same for the fans – but we were very patient and tried to control the game.
“We stayed doing what we wanted to, got the goal and could have got more.
“It was a quality finish from Makenzie. He’s had expectations on him so it hasn’t been easy when he’s not scoring.
“But we always said to get into the tight positions and the goal would come.”
Mitchell a star turn
Zach Mitchell, making his first start for Saints, was the man of the match and, unsurprisingly earned his manager’s praise.
“We knew Zach was a quality player,” said Valakari. “I have been waiting for this moment to put him on.
“Even if it wasn’t for Bozo’s injury he was starting this game.
“It was no surprise to see him play well.”
Valakari made four changes to the team which lost to Hearts on Sunday.
One of the men to come in, Stephen Duke-McKenna, nearly opened the scoring on 11 minutes.
The on-loan Harrogate winger forced an excellent save out of Jordan Amissah with his 25-yard free-kick that was heading for the top corner.
As has so often been the case for Saints this season, there was a new-look backline.
The defenders weren’t tested too much in the first half, with the only moment of partial concern coming on the half-hour when Ronan Hale helped on an Akil Wright cross from the right at the near post.
But Sam Curtis was alert to clear the danger.
Curtis had been left cursing superb goalkeeping at the weekend when Craig Gordon denied him what looked to be a certain goal.
And there was a bit of déjà vu just before half-time in this contest.
Mitchell linked up well down the left with Jonathan Svedberg, who delivered a perfectly-weighted cross.
As he did a few days ago, Curtis charged in at the back post where the Sheffield United wing-back’s diving header was kept out by Amissah, low to his right.
County were first to threaten after the interval, with Elijah Campbell getting his head to a Noah Chilvers corner. Andy Fisher wasn’t troubled though, as it flew straight at him.
Having struggled to create a chance in the second half, Saints had one created for them when Akil Wright took a heavy touch in his own box.
Duke-McKenna dispossessed the big defender on the 66th minute. His shot was saved by Amissah but Kirk gave the goalie no chance with the rebound, smashing it into the net.
Fisher was called upon to make an excellent low save from a Nohan Kenna 18-yard shot that came through a crowded box with just a minute left of the 90.
That he held on to it was even more impressive.
His team held on as well – for a victory they thoroughly deserved.
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