Saint Louis – Sitting outside of the playoff places with six weeks remaining in the 2018 USL regular season and facing a pivotal stretch of four straight matches against playoff contenders, Saint Louis FC knew it needed to pick up results in a hurry if it hoped to reach the USL Cup Playoffs for the first time in club history.

That challenge has appeared to produce a novel tactical pivot from Head Coach Anthony Pulis that changed his team’s mentality away from a group that likes to keep possession of the ball to one that looks for opportunities to strike on the counterattack.

The result has been two straight victories and a four-game unbeaten run that sees STLFC sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference standings as it enters a potential postseason preview against Phoenix Rising FC on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET | Match Center | ESPN+) with a playoff berth clearly in its sights.

Over its current unbeaten run, Saint Louis has shown the ability to win in different ways, coming away with three points from a 4-3 goalfest against the Swope Park Rangers as well as keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 home victory over Reno 1868 FC a week earlier. The lone constants over that stretch, however, have been STLFC’s counterattacking threat – especially down the left side of the field – and its clinical finishing.

Before beginning its run of good form against Reno on September 8, Saint Louis had held the majority of possession in three of its four prior contests but managed just four goals and four points against Portland Timbers 2 and eliminated sides Fresno FC, Tulsa Roughnecks FC and Seattle Sounders FC 2. Since that string of results, however, the side has been out-possessed in each of its four matches while averaging just over 40 percent of the ball.

It has made up for that with improved finishing as it has converted its shot attempts at a 16 percent clip, two percent higher than the club’s overall regular season mark.