Barry Douglas believes St Johnstone have piled pressure on Dundee and Ross County

The Courier

13-05-2025

Barry Douglas believes St Johnstone have piled pressure on to Ross County and Dundee with their weekend win.
And going into the final week of the Premiership season as the hunter rather than the hunted may be no bad thing.
Saints are only three points adrift of County in the wake of Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Highlanders.
While they are battling it out against Hearts on Wednesday night, the Dingwall side will be clashing with Dundee at Dens Park.
Neither of the two teams above them can yet discount the possibility of automatic relegation.
And Douglas is determined that the McDiarmid Park men will make sure they are in a position to capitalise on slip-ups.
'We have everything to gain and nothing to lose,' said the veteran defender.
'We have been down at the bottom of the table for so long, we're underdogs and we've been written off.
'That means we can play with freedom.
'We can just give the best account of ourselves individually and collectively.
'Everyone thinks we're down, so let's see if we have enough over the next week.
'The pressure isn't on us. Other teams know they have to win.
'We're not where we want to be but the pressure is always on the teams who are leading.
'When you go to win a title, it's the team at the top, not the ones chasing, who feel it.
'That's where we are, the other teams need to win or they're in trouble.'
Saints' victory over County brought into focus the fact that on form, since the last transfer window, they've not got the points record of a team likely to go down.
'You look at moments over the season and I think that winter period really hurt us,' said Douglas.
'That was when we really needed to get some points, but we fell adrift back then.
'That was when we had to survive and stay in there.
'But credit where it's due, we've got ourselves back in contention.
'The gap is down to three points with two games to play so we've got a chance to make this great escape.
'We have to show up and get those results.
'It will be difficult, but we know we're good enough to get something from these games.'
Saints had to do it the hard way at the weekend after playing their way into trouble for County's equaliser.
That's an obvious area in need of improvement at Tynecastle.
Douglas said: 'We have spoken about it in the dressing room and said that going into the split, all we could do from that position was be in contention to ask questions of other teams.
'We've done that.
'I think we should have been in a better position.
'We've dropped too many points in those type of games and been naive.
'Even against Ross County, we got a bit of luck with the offside, but that's maybe what we've needed.
'We have taken a lot of belief from that win but we are humble enough to know it's just three points and we have to be even better against Hearts.
'They are better team than the table suggests but we believe we are that too.
'It's all about results and finding the balance, eradicating the errors and also playing the way we know suits us.'