St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson will go into the play-offs in confident mood after framing their season extension as a positive.

Saints will face Inverness in the first leg of the cinch Premiership play-off final next Friday after their final position of 11th was confirmed with a 1-0 win over Aberdeen in midweek.

Davidson stressed that such a finish was not the worst option that faced him as he tried to halt a desperate run of form in the middle of the campaign.

The Perth side lost eight consecutive Premiership games in between seeing their double cup defence end against Celtic and then Kelty Hearts.

Saints were two points adrift of Dundee at the bottom going into February and saw the likes of Ross County, St Mirren and Livingston go on impressive runs above them.

So Davidson will not fret over a play-off chance to save their Premiership status, especially after a run that has seen them lose twice in eight games.

“We are here, we know where we are now,” he said. “If you had asked me back in January that we will still have 180 minutes of football to stay in the league, and if you win those games you retain your Premiership status, then I would have taken it.

“We are going into the games with a lot of confidence. Over the last three months, if you look at the bigger picture, we have performed pretty well, pretty consistently.

“One or two games we haven’t performed well but the majority we have so we will go in with confidence.”

Saints first face Hibernian at Easter Road in their final league game and Davidson will look to rest some players carrying minor fitness issues and others at risk of suspension.

“Obviously Sunday is a game that we could probably do without, we would rather just crack on with the games ahead,” he said.

“But we will need to deal with it in a professional manner and then we will look towards the Friday game.”