Steve Lomas won’t look beyond top-six finish

Victory over Ross County, combined with a draw in the match between Motherwell and Inverness, would allow Saints to pull level on points with Caley Thistle in the runners-up position. But, with a tough seven days ahead, including a meeting with SPL leaders Celtic, Lomas is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “We would like to get top six again. We had a taste of it last year so we would like to get there again. It’s very tight and we’ve got a very big week Ross County away, Celtic at home and St Mirren at home.

“Ross County are probably one of the form teams and so are St Mirren. Playing Celtic in between is going to be tough. We are under no illusions that we are probably going to have to win at least another three or four games to get into that top six.

“The old cliche comes in that you are only looking at one game. We’ve got three games in seven days, which will stretch us and everybody in the squad will have to play a part. We’re not really focusing past that.”

St Johnstone make the trip to Dingwall boosted by an well deserved 3-1 win over an admittedly woeful Hibs side at Easter Road on Monday night.

Lomas said: “Confidence should be high, it was a good performance. But it’s gone now, it’s put to bed, and well have to try to repeat it now.

“I don’t think Ross County have been beaten since the turn of the year. They are a very efficient side and the manager has brought in four or five very good signings, he’s probably been the busiest of the managers in the SPL. All credit to them, they are a decent, well-organised team.”

County midfielder Paul Lawson is looking for the Highland side to keep their momentum going.

“We’ve got the top six in our sights, you want to finish as high as you can,” said the midfielder. “We’ll take each game as it comes but in the longer term it would be great to finish up there It’s been a great run, each game brings even more confidence and the games of late have pushed up the table which has been nice.

“Obviously it takes time to settle in to the SPL, we started well but then had a little dip in form. However we’ve responded well and are concentrating of keeping the run going and if we can keep it going then it would be great. As the table show there’s nothing between the teams. St Johnstone got a good result away to Hibs on Monday but it’s all about us and, as I said, we want to keep our unbeaten run going.”

Lawson is enjoying first-team action again after injuries disrupted the start to his season. The former Scotland Under-21 player, who has been at County since 2007 when the club was in the Second Division, said: “It’s nice to be back in the side and the run we’re on makes it easier. And on a personal note I just want to continue doing well for the team.”