Steven Gerrard told his Rangers players they weren't fit to wear the jerseys after a calamitous opening 45 minutes at McDiarmid Park - with the Ibrox men suitably motivated to battle back from a goal down for victory.
Alfredo Morelos bagged goals 18 and 19 of the season to drag his team over the line after Matty Kennedy had deservedly put St Johnstone in front just before the break.
'I had to have the honest conversation with them at half-time, I had to tell them what all the fans thought of them - because you could hear their reaction at the end of the first half.
'My job is to let them know what the fans think and it's my job to demand more out of them. And we got a major reaction in the second half. Every single player, to a man, stood up to be counted.
'We shouldn't have to work that hard to win at places like this.
'You saw the two sides to us today. The team in the first half was second best all over the pitch and made hard work of it.
'Then we were a quality team which looks like it's capable of being at the top of the table.
'We are really pleased with the points. These were three really big points with the two games we have on the horizon.
'But we shouldn't have to make substitutions so early and I shouldn't have to be looking at every single player eye-to-eye at half-time, demanding a reaction from them.
With home games against Hibernian and then Celtic to come on Boxing Day and then on Saturday, respectively, Gerrard knows his team cannot afford a similarly slipshod shift again.
'We need a 90-minute performance for the next two games now,' he said, adding: 'That's an understatement.
'I need Rangers for the 90 minutes against Hibs, with the quality they have up top. And I need to see the performance from the second half today for the whole of the next two games.
'Quality was the difference (in the second half today). That final pass, the centre-forward crashing the goal frame.
'Being relentless in our waves, not giving up, staying on it, defending at the halfway line and really just not letting teams out.
'We never did that against Dundee. The waves were there against Dundee but there was no quality.
'The waves were there against Hamilton and there was only one bit of quality. Today, there was enough to win the game.
'In the first half, Matty Kennedy was really good, a top 45 minutes. He was a constant thorn in our side. He had energy and we kept backing off him, going deep.
Ryan Jack missed Sunday's game with a groin injury but could be back to face Hibs, while Rangers fans were cheered by the return of Lee Wallace - a sub for Borna Barisic just before half-time.
Wallace had played just 30 seconds of football since last September, Gerrard saying: 'You could see that he hadn't played for that amount of time. He did okay, defended well at times.
'But it will take him time to get back to his best, although he did communicate and was trying to lead. I'm pleased for him that he's come back in and sampled a win, because he's been working hard in training.