And Holt has welcomed the extra time to plan for next season.

"It's a massive achievement," Holt said. "To do it with six games left is a phenomenal achievement. We were relegation favourites, everybody's tip to go down, and I'm really pleased for the lads.

"We have had chats about recruitment and where we are looking and this also helps, it has given us a longer time frame to put things in place and not stand still.

"It certainly helps when you are trying to attract players. Players can see you are guaranteed for next season and they are not taking a gamble or waiting.

"We know what type of players we are looking at and it gives us a bit more time to do the analysis."

Holt, whose side visit Celtic Park on Saturday, added: "Hopefully we can try a few things in the coming games, give players some game time and see if they can handle the pressure of playing at this level.  You want to finish on a high and carry on the good work."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Gavin McCafferty, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a803b7db-8add-4eb2-943a-46fc4d6de0b7');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Holt hopes Premiership safety can help attract new faces'});