Boss Tommy Wright believes St Johnstone need to win their Ladbrokes Premiership game against St Mirren on Wednesday night to retain chances of a top-six finish.
The Perth outfit have garnered one point from the last 24 and sit in ninth place, seven points behind sixth-place Hibernian.
The rearranged match against the Paisley side – the original fixture was called off because of weather – is their game in hand and with only four fixtures to go before the split, Wright claims victory against the bottom team in the league is essential for top-half hopes.
He told the club’s official website. “I still believe we can do it but we need to start winning games and that begins tomorrow.
“If we don’t win the match we can pretty much wave goodbye to our chances as it will leave us with a lot to do.
“We’re more than capable of going on a run though and I think it’s probably going to require us picking up 10 points from our remaining games which we can do.
“We’ve been on a bad run and it’s been individual errors in games that have cost us. In addition to that we haven’t made the most of our possession by creating chances in the final third.
“If we’re going to put things right we need to refocus and get the three points against a St Mirren side that’s fighting for their lives.”
Wright is boosted by the return of goalkeeper Zander Clark who has recovered from a hamstring complaint which has kept him out for four games although there are other injury problems.
The Northern Irishman said: “Zander will come back in and that’s great because he’s been excellent for us this season.
“There’s every possibility he would have played in the initial fixture but there’s no doubt it would have been a risk.
“Now the risk has been taken out of it and he’s had longer to train.
“We also had a training match last week and he came through that without any issues.
“We will however be without a few players who have picked up injuries since. Blair Alston and Callum Hendry both have groin problems and will miss the match.
“There’s also a doubt over David Wotherspoon who has taken a knock to his ankle so we’ll assess him. On top of those three we have Niall Keown and Drey Wright out too.”
