The last time Saints were hammered 4-0 (or worse) was in John Coughlin's last game in November 2003, when Inverness Caley Thistle put their usual number past us at Love Street. Saturday's game against Dundee was also the first time Saints have conceded four goals since then in the league, though we were thrashed 5-2 by Forfar in the League Cup last season.
Fortunately, our defence is usually quite good and it seems that we only lost four goals because MacPherson decided to go for it and put an extra striker on, which is fair enough. So, it seems, we don't need to worry about a return to the bad old days.
The 4-0 win over Ross County was our best league result since March 2000, when we humped Clydebank 8-0 at Love Street. There has, however, been a 7-0 win over East Stirlingshire since then, but that was in the League Challenge Cup in 2002. It was the most goals we've seen a Saints side score since a match against Ayr in April 2004 when we won 4-1. Since then, there have been numerous occasions when we have put three past teams without reply.
There isn't much chance of this being a regular result either though. Ross County only lost 4-0 for the same reason we did: they went for it. Admittedly someone was due a hammering from us, but I don't think many folk expected it would be that game.
So, it seems that we don't need to worry about a return to the bad old days when we leaked goals, but we aren't going to see a return to the days of 1999/2000 when we scored for fun. Of course, I could be talking nonsense and we could go on to win or lose our next five games 4-0!