Lyon forecasts more pressure

St Kilda's Sam Gilbert breaks away from a grounded Brett Peake (Fremantle) on Saturday night

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DESPITE an impressive 4-0 record and holding top spot on the AFL ladder with an amazing percentage of 200, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon is still not sure how his team is placed in the overall scheme of the 2009 season.

The Saints smashed Fremantle by 83 points on Saturday night, a week after they disposed of West Coast in a similar manner, and they beat 2008 finalists the Sydney Swans and Adelaide to start the season.

Lyon said he was expecting the pressure on his side to increase.

"You're going to be put under more extreme pressure than we have been against some teams that are in red-hot form," he said after the game. "Have we played any of them? I don't know, but they're certainly coming.

"It's a marathon. Sure we're 4-0 and we're rapt, and we're kicking our 16 goals a week, and we're pleased.

"But we know there are bigger challenges ahead, and if you take the eye off those challenges and stop working hard, you come back to earth with a thud pretty quickly."

Despite fixtures against Port Adelaide, the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood in the next three weeks, Lyon said the picture might not be any clearer after those games given the Saints' mid-season form improvement last year.

"It'll help, but there's some big calls being made – 'they're top four', 'they're premiers', 'they're bottom'," he said.

"We know – I think we were 5-6, lost to be 5-7, and we won eight out of our next 10 and lost two by under a goal.

"In the context of the season, you've got to keep competing and winning because if you stop, you're in trouble."

However, Lyon did admit that getting wins on the board early was invaluable.

"Lack of form, loss of form, injuries, reports, short breaks, red-hot opposition – all those variables add up," he said.

"Clearly you'd rather get them in the bank than not get them in the bank, so it's nice.

"But tonight you walk out the door and go 4-0. We certainly can't do any better than that, and it could be worse, so you take it.

"But we know four wins doesn't get you into the finals. We know 12 or 13 does.

"So until we get to 12 or 13 wins we won't be ticking off any box. If you get to that ... then you reset and try and go again."