Murray Davidson admits he overdid it pounding the pavements during lockdown – but he hopes St Johnstone are now on the right step towards the top six.

The Saints midfielder's over-eagerness to keep himself in top shape during the coronavirus shutdown backfired when he developed an Achilles injury.

That limited him to just one appearance in the first six weeks of the new season but he has been back at his best in recent weeks as Saints chalked up a seven-game unbeaten run.

"I feel fit and I feel strong now," said 32-year-old. "I probably did too much during lockdown and I should have known better. I'm experienced enough to know I didn't need to push myself that hard.

"I ended up with tendinitis in my Achilles and that was just from running on a hard surface so I had to take time off as it was an injury that literally only rest can help.

"Looking back I know I did too much but it was just the fact we were in lockdown and there was nothing else to do and I wanted to be as fit as I could possibly be.

"The last seven or eight games I feel fit and strong and long may that continue."

Saints had a slow start to the Premiership campaign but are now up to eighth place having also booked a Betfred Cup showdown with Motherwell at Fir Park in the last 16 after topping their group-stage section.

It is the Steelmen's turn to travel to Perth this weekend, however, and Davidson admits Well's own recent rise up the table shows just how tight the top flight is, with only 10 points separating the teams from fifth down to last place.

"I'm not one for looking at the league table so early on but I know it's tight," he said. "I think it's been like that for the last three or four weeks and so if you can put a positive run of results together you can quickly move up.

"Look at Motherwell a few weeks ago. They were bottom of the table but have probably won something like four out of their last six games and are now up to seventh.

"There are seven or eight teams in that cluster looking to do something similar and get into the top six.

"But at the other end if you have three or four bad results then you quickly slide back down towards the bottom.

"So it's extremely tight but it is extremely early and we're looking to carry on the run we're on to get as high up the league as possible."