St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari believes his bottom-of-the-table team can use their battling point against Hibernian as a turning point in their fight to stay up.
Saints halted a run of four straight defeats after holding on for a 1-1 draw despite playing with 10 men for over 50 minutes.
Nicky Clark slotted home a penalty in first-half stoppage time to put Saints ahead just minutes after Jason Holt was shown a straight red card.
Dwight Gayle equalised with 11 minutes remaining for Hibs but Saints clung on for a point.
Victories elsewhere for Hearts and Ross County cast the Perth side five points adrift at the foot of the William Hill Premiership, but Valakari took positives from how Saints refused to buckle.
Valakari said: “It’s mixed emotions. Yes, we wanted three points so to get only one point from a home match is a little bit disappointing.
“But in our situation, bottom of the league, everything goes against you.
“We were playing a team at the top of their form, with momentum. It was a silly tackle to get the red card and then people would have been thinking: ‘This is the game gone for St Johnstone’.
“But actually, what I saw was a team grow together much stronger. For me, we handled most of the crosses very, very well.
“Then we conceded a goal. When that has happened recently the air has come out of us.
“Not this time. It was a strong, committed performance where the team grew together.
“We’ve got a point and there were a lot of good, honest performances. We need calms heads. Because we didn’t win, the gap has got bigger but sometimes you have to look behind the point.
“It was a testament to the spirit and desire in the team, which will take us out of this situation.”
In-form Saints striker Makenzie Kirk missed out with injury and is a doubt for Sunday’s home game against Dundee.
Meanwhile, Kyle Cameron did not feature in the squad but was not injured, raising questions about the on-loan Notts County defender’s immediate future in Perth.
Hibernian boss David Gray conceded his team had missed a good chance to hit the top half of the table.
Hibs have only lost to Celtic in their last eight games and were bottom of the division just five weeks ago.
He said: “I think we’ve probably done everything but score in terms of final third.
“We didn’t really work the goalkeeper enough for the number of opportunities we created.
“So that’s why it feels like it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. But we need to remain positive because we’ve come a long way in a short period of time.
“To lose the goal just before half-time gives St Johnstone a lift, gives them something to hold on to and really changed how you go about the second half.
“Credit to them – they defended with their life, put people in front of the ball and worked exceptionally hard.”
