St Johnstone’s defensive injury crisis has provided more ammunition for those who believe a relegation fate for the Perth club has already been sealed.
Head coach, Simo Valakari, has a different message, however.
The post-split Premiership mini-season will be a time for heroes to emerge.
And despite the fact that Zach Mitchell’s season is likely to be over and Daniels Balodis is the last fit centre-half at McDiarmid Park, Valakari believes this latest test can be part of a famous underdog survival story.
“We are on the ropes with the injuries to our defenders,” said the Perth boss, who is still waiting for the scan results for Mitchell’s hamstring.
“But the chance is there for someone to create a story for themselves.
“There’s an opportunity to become the hero.
“That story has been written throughout all of football history – now is the chance for someone to do it here.
“It’s not what you want but in football you get these moments. Sometimes you need to do things out of your comfort zone.
“You need to stand up to adversity.
“There’s no point crying about it.
“It’s not the situation we want to be in, but this is how it is.
“Of course, to be successful you need to keep your best players healthy and when you’re bottom of the league things like this happen to you.
“We will need to adapt now. It’s important that our narrative is positive.
“There’s no point being sorry and safe – let’s go full rock and roll and attack it.
“If we go the other way then we’re already gone. So that’s not the approach we’ll have.”
Post-split possibilities
Another example of Valakari’s glass half-full mindset is the phraseology he chooses for the post-split phase of the league campaign.
He said: “We go into a five-game race from a position behind everyone else, but if we hit our top form, get the opponents fearing we’re coming behind them then anything is possible.
“People are talking there’s ONLY five games left but from my perspective, the way I look at it is – there are STILL five games to play.
“That opens-up possibilities because everyone plays each other now the league has split.
“When we were 10 points behind, we started our first journey to get closer by this point.
“There was a lot of talk then that we were already relegated, but we have managed to get ourselves closer.
“We are here now.
“Are we in the ideal situation? Of course not, because we’d like to be closer.
“But we are here now, so we have to take it from this position now.
“The important thing now is we’re in good form – our last four games have been against top five teams.
“Maybe in some moments against them our attacking or other moments haven’t been the best, but that’s down to the opponent as well.
“What we need to do it take it from this point now. They will be huge pressure games.
“But we have been in this position a long time.
“This is the start of the race for us again.”
Fixtures
Valakari hopes that their three v two home and away fixture balance will be a significant factor in Saints’ favour.
“The fixtures are how we expected them to be,” he said.
“It’s clear for us – we need to win matches so hopefully having three at home will help.
“Normally you are stronger at home. We know the field and how it plays.
“You’d rather play at home.
“The aim will be to go into the final games with the situation in our own hands.
“There are a lot of points to play for still – 15 are still on the table.”
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