'Most enjoyable season since Wright years' - how Saints stormed to title
Top of the table since matchday one when they thrashed Partick Thistle - who turned out to be their only title challengers - 5-1, St Johnstone supporters were still not celebrating their Scottish Championship win until Ruari Paton's pinpoint header against Dunfermline on Tuesday sparked bedlam at East End Park. Simo Valakari's Perthshire Saints have sealed their immediate return to the Premiership with two games to spare, even if for much of the season it's seemed a case of when, not if, they'd be popping the champagne for their pending top-flight return next term. But for the punters who have become accustomed to a bit of pain in recent years, nothing was being taken for granted, despite a fairly flawless campaign.
"Being top throughout has brought a strange sort of comfort in a way, we've never been chasing or anything like that," Saints fan and Dogger Saints podcaster, Danny Williams told BBC Scotland. "It's probably quite a natural reaction for football fans to get a bit nervy, especially after having four difficult seasons like we have - I think we've been carrying a bit of scar tissue. "But, what a feeling enjoying going every week and being confident every week has been, this has just been a lovely way to top it all off.
" St Johnstone players gatecrash the Sportscene studio As season's go, it's been a pretty straightforward one for St Johnstone. And it was very welcomed by those who spend their Saturdays - and this season, Fridays - at McDiarmid Park. They've won the most games (20 out of 24), lost the fewest (three), scored the most goals (64 - 12 more than Thistle) and conceded the lowest amount (25 - 10 fewer than the Jags).
Williams cites their emphatic start - where they gathered 28 points from an available 30 - as the crucial part of the title triumph as it "provided a nice cushion, even when the form dropped off a little bit with draws around the turn of the year. "Because it was such a good start, anything less than that, you start to get jittery, a bit touchy after being on such a pedestal. " And he said it was only earlier this month - 4 April to be exact - when he felt "the pendulum totally swung in our favour".
"That was a day when you thought, it's totally in our hands," he explained. "We were 1-0 down to Arbroath but we equalised just before half-time. Then, we went on to win 4-2, while Thistle dropped points away to Ayr.