Jason Holt up for challenge of bringing St Johnstone back to top flight at first attempt
Jason Holt didn't stay at Livingston for their attempt to bounce straight back to the Premiership following relegation.
But he aims to do just that with St Johnstone.
Holt, who was signed by Craig Levein in the summer, is one of the Perth players under contract for next season.
He knows a squad overhaul is about to come at McDiarmid Park.
And he believes there is already the nucleus of a team that can hit the ground running in the Championship.
'Well, certainly, looking at it that way, I think we're going to probably be one of the favourites,' said the former Hearts and Rangers midfielder.
'That will bring a different pressure – winning games every week.
'The group that's here next year will need to take that on board and deal with that.
'It certainly won't be easy.
'But the boys who are here and the players who come into the building will need to deal with that pressure.
'Naturally, I think if a club goes down, there's probably a bit of a rebuild.
'I don't know what that will look like.
'There are players out contract who, if we stayed in the league, might have stayed at the club.
'Now, I don't know how that looks.
'But I am sure the club will have decisions to make over the summer.'
Back-to-back relegations would take their emotional toll on any player.
'It's hard,' Holt admitted. 'You don't want any on your CV.
'Unfortunately, I've been on the end of two in a row.
'This year was a bit different – last year Livingston were relegated with a few weeks left.
'At one point it looked like we were gone her. Then we had a wee string of results which pulled us back into it and kept it competitive.
'We've tried to take it as far as we could but, ultimately, we've fallen short.
'Overall, we've clearly not been good enough.
'Throughout your career there's going to be bumps in the road, ups and downs.
'Certainly, the last two years have been difficult because you're not winning a lot of football matches.
'You try not to, but you take that home with you and it affects everything.
'It's been challenging at times, but again, that's the life of a football player.'
Holt added: 'The lads and the staff are gutted. Gutted.
'It's been difficult for the whole club, the fans.
'Unfortunately, we've not been good enough in the end, so obviously as a collective group, we hold ourselves accountable.
'The boys are just devastated, to be honest, because it's a really good club and we wanted to stay in the top-flight for as long as we could.
'The fans travelled in unbelievable numbers again and backed us right to the end.
'Obviously, we were hoping that we could take it to the last day, but unfortunately, that's not the case.'
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