IT SAYS much of St Johnstone’s positivity and buoyancy that the Perth players can draw merit from the analysis of a failing. Troubles on the home front, midfielder Blair Alston asserted, were a measure of the fear factor Saints now carry as an established top six force in Scotland.

Alston, outstanding in Saturday’s triumph in Dingwall, accepts Saints have produced much of their best form on the road this season. Chris Kane’s winner in Dingwall secured a sixth away victory in the league, allied to four draws and only three defeats in 13 matches on the road.

Against that, home outings have brought a rather less polished record of only four victories from 12 matches at McDiarmid Park, with three draws and five defeats.

Alston insists opponents are blatantly “parking the bus” when they visit Perth, viewing a result against the Saints almost as a big scalp in the campaign. It is only at venues like the Global Energy Stadium, where St Johnstone have now triumphed on five of their last six visits, that the team’s true ability shines.

The Dingwall win hoisted Saints to just one point behind faltering fourth-placed Hearts and tantalisingly close to securing a sixth successive top six spot.

“We’re a team, especially this season, who seem to perform better away from home,” the 24-year-old Alston said. “There tends to be more pressure on home teams to come out and play and that enables us to play our own game, counter-attack the way we like to.

“We limited Ross County to only a few chances and created a few ourselves, so overall it was a good performance. At home, the onus is really on us to go and break teams down and they see us, maybe not as a huge scalp, but as a very tough opponent.

“They come and sit in – lots of teams park the bus – and try to counter us. It definitely is a mark of respect to St Johnstone that teams come to us with that attitude. It just shows how well the club have done over the past few years.

St Johnstone, such a consistent success story under Tommy Wright’s management, now have the chance to secure another lofty finish in the league, although Alston remained cautious.

“We’re still looking to make sure we make the top six and we’ll just take each game as it comes,” he said. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position but the job isn’t done yet.”

County can surely relate to Saints’ struggles at home. The Dingwall team have managed just three wins at home in the league this season while almost half their points tally has come on the road.

With Saints effective in nullifying County attacks and stifling their gameplan, it quickly became scrappy with both sides guilty of lacklustre play for lengthy spells.

But the Perth team were first to threaten with David Wotherspoon driven cross from the left into the box flicked on by the heel of Blair Alston. The Saints’ man’s attempt was touched onto the outside of the post by the alert Scott Fox.

After an awkward tumble, Murray Davidson exited injured to be replaced by Keith Watson, after only 13 minutes.

County’s first real chance materialised after 27 minutes when Curran showed great perseverance to win the ball back twice. The Liverpudlian found Liam Boyce who teed up Gardyne for a wild strike over the bar.

Three minutes later, Martin Woods’ chipped free-kick appeared to catch the raised hand of Joe Shaughnessy in the St Johnstone penalty area but referee John Beaton wasn’t interested.

County were behind a minute later. Wotherspoon rose to head the ball wide right to Alston inside the right of the County box and he cut the ball across low to where Steven MacLean was waiting to send a deflected shot past the helpless County keeper.

County’s Gardyne struck the upright as he controlled a high Kenny van der Weg ball into the box.

Just after the hour, it was Saints’ turn to scream for a penalty as County blocked a Shaughnessy header on the line with Martin Woods seeming to handle.

County’s perseverance paid off finally after 73 minutes. Woods’ low pass through the middle split the away defence and Curran raced in, took a touch and slipped a 10-yard shot past Clark for the leveller.

But Saints weren’t to be outdone. Entering stoppage time Wotherspoon’s ball across found substitute Chris Kane taking a touch before lashing a 22 yard screamer into the top left corner.

Woods, the County midfielder, spoke of growing frustration at performances which have dragged County back to within three points of the play-off spot.

“We’ve all got to take responsibility and do better. We have to put an end to all of this now and get back to winning matches,” the 31-year-old said. “We’ve been lacking quality in recent weeks in terms of the final ball and some of the goals we’ve lost lately have been sloppy.

“There’s no lack of effort but the quality just hasn’t been there – and we need to get it sorted.”