St Johnstone goalie Andy Fisher says Perth side were written off before shock Celtic win

St Johnstone’s shock victory over Celtic has shown they are made of the right stuff for an end-of-season relegation character test, according to Andy Fisher.

But the on-loan Swansea City goalkeeper, who produced a few stunning saves in Sunday’s 1-0 victory over the champions-elect, knows that they now need to back that result up by beating Dundee United.

When the gap to second bottom opened dup to eight points the day before, most people reached the conclusion that the Perth side’s survival race was run.

Saints’ stunning result in the bottom v top weekend clash will have deflated their relegation rivals, however.

And now is the time to build on that unexpected momentum switch.

“It’s massive,” said Fisher.

“I’m incredibly proud of everyone – the players, the staff, the fans, everyone behind the scenes.

“It shows we’ve bounced back from last week (a 3-0 loss to Hibs).

“That wasn’t the result we wanted or the performance we wanted.

“But we’ve got a clean sheet and a win against Celtic, which shows we can beat anyone.

“Now we have to go out next week and get the three points or this win means nothing.

“We can’t control what goes on outside of here – only what goes on inside and on the pitch.

“I think it shows real resilience. Everyone wrote us off before the game.

“You look at the schedule and you probably write yourself off in a way!

“To get this win was like a bonus three points.

“It gives us a better chance now, to hopefully go out and get another three points and claw back a bit of that difference going into the split.

“There’s still a belief within our squad we can stay up. Next week is a big game. It’s a must-win.

“We can hopefully keep the points close going into the split. Then there are obviously 15 points up for grabs in the five games after the split.”

Transformation

Fisher has now faced both Rangers and Celtic.

His Saints debut was against the former, when the error count in front of him was alarmingly high.

It was a different story at McDiarmid on Sunday for the remodelled backline.

“This is what I came here for,” he said. “I came here to play games, play against the best teams in Scotland and to show everyone what I can do.

“My first game was Rangers away. We’ve made a few signings since then to make the squad a lot better.

“The Rangers game, I had one session then played. We’ve come on leaps and bounds from there.

“We made it hard for Celtic. The change of shape helped make us solid.

“There’s trust there at the back, we’ve got a good connection.

“We trust each other, we listen to each other.

“We work hard for each other and dig each other out of trouble when something happens.

“That’s one win, we enjoy it. But we are straight back in the morning, recover and lead into the next game and hopefully get the three points.”