St Johnstone false loan dawn, and the evaluation*

Another false dawn for St Johnstone was exposed at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.

The grasp of football basics, the expertly executed tactics and the sense of purpose that underlined the Perth side’s superb victory at Easter Road seven days earlier largely deserted them in their defeat to Kilmarnock.

There had been genuine cause for cautious optimism that Saints were building upward momentum in time to avoid a nerve-shredding finale to the season.

That balloon has been burst.

Courier Sport picks out three talking points from the last of the pre-split matches.

When it goes wrong for St Johnstone, there’s nothing revelatory anymore.

Themes that have been at the root of many a defeat this season were on show once again.

There was a hesitant start, playing like a team trying to edge their way into the contest while letting their opponents settle, rather than seizing the initiative.

There was the punishment dished out for not stopping a cross for the first goal and not winning a header for the second.

There was the lack of creativity on the flanks, with two left-backs on one side and a big open space in front of David Keltjens with nobody filling it on the other.

And, as the post-match data confirmed, Nicky Clark dropped even deeper than midfielders Matt Smith and Max Kucheriavyi to get himself involved.

With Adama Sidibeh’s decision-making and hold-up play not as good as it had been in the previous two matches, there was little attacking fluency apart from a few bursts in the first 20 minutes of the second half.

All in all, given the incentive and the stakes, it made for dispiriting viewing.

There can be no doubt that Derek McInnes was playing cards with a far stronger hand than Craig Levein.

The ex-Saints boss had far more money to spend in the summer than Steven MacLean and far more than Levein to top-up his squad in January.

Unlike with Hibs and Aberdeen, at Kilmarnock, that investment has been put to good use.

Killie’s bench had at least six players who would enhance St Johnstone’s starting line-up.

Kevin van Veen was only brought on two minutes before the end of normal time.

There’s an art to keeping players who would expect more action happy and McInnes is mastering it.