Witnessing Mo Farah win gold in the 10,000m at the London 2012 Olympic Games was like watching patience personified. 

The Briton bided his time for 9500m before bursting clear with just over a lap to go. Once he hit the front, he never looked back.

If Farah’s weapon of choice throughout his career on the track was rapier-like, then Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s has all the subtlety of a battering ram. 

An Olympic champion in the 1500m and 5000m, the Norwegian dares his rivals to keep up with the relentless pace he sets as he leads from the front, before watching them drop one by one.

Contrasting as their styles may be, what unites Farah and Ingebrigtsen is a desire to cross the line first, which is ultimately what matters most in professional sport.

It is a comparison which feels relevant to Palermo’s bid to secure a play-off spot.

After spending seven months at the back of the group, the Rosanero may just be timing their finish to perfection as rivals tire and stumble around them, while Sassuolo and Pisa have long disappeared towards the automatic promotion places.

Sunday’s 2-1 win at Salernitana lifted Palermo up to seventh, ahead of Cesena on goal difference and two points clear of Bari, who dropped out of the top eight after losing to Carrarese.

This was a hugely significant result for the Sicilians and Alessio Dionisi following a typically chaotic two weeks. 

The 3-2 defeat at home by Cremonese before the international break looked to have sealed Dionisi’s fate, coming as it did against a promotion rival and after Palermo led by two goals with 20 minutes left.

The Rosanero looked set to sack the former Sassuolo manager before performing a spectacular U-turn, with sporting director Carlo Osti handing him a stay of execution.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the manager being sacked, and numerous other names have been mentioned, but they weren’t in our plans,” Osti said last week. 

“I expect the team to step up and take ownership, because it’s obvious that the blame can’t fall on one person alone, we are all being assessed.”

If Osti laid down the challenge, the team responded. Salernitana may be 19th in Serie B, but only league leaders Sassuolo had won at the Arechi since the turn of the year.

Pisa, Spezia, Juve Stabia and Bari were the only other teams to have won in Salerno this season before Sunday. 

Of those, only the Galletti are behind Palermo in the table and Dionisi did not need an invitation to hit back at his critics. 

“Before us, only Sassuolo had won in Salerno (this year),” he said. 

“After two weeks filled with chats about my future, we delivered a fantastic performance.”

Unsurprisingly, Palermo had Matteo Brunori and Joel Pohjanpalo to thank on Sunday.

The former opened the scoring with a superb curling effort to register his third goal in his last four appearances.

In a season of questionable choices, Dionisi’s decision to hand Brunori just five starts between August and January after he scored 17 league goals in each of the last two Serie B campaigns remains his most baffling yet.

But there was nothing baffling about Palermo’s decision to sign Pohjanpalo for €4m from Venezia in the January transfer window.

The Finland international has been worth every penny and his goal against Salernitana was his fifth in seven matches.

The signing underlined City Football Group’s ambition to bring Palermo back to Serie A for the first time in eight years.

The consortium, which has owned the club since 2022, strengthened the squad with €5m (£4.2m) worth of signings in January after spending almost twice as much in the summer.

But for all the investment, Dionisi has never quite managed to get a tune out of his team, tinkering with selection and tactics along the way.

Throughout the season, Palermo have looked like a team that can’t get out of their own way.

They have not won more than two games in a row this season and their longest unbeaten run lasted only five weeks, before coming to an abrupt halt against Cremonese.

In that respect, it was telling to hear Dionisi admit they are still searching for their identity seven games from the end of the campaign.

“Embracing our identity as a working-class team will serve us well in the future,” he said on Sunday.

“We need to find balance and we need to understand who we are as a team.”

Balance has been at a premium this season in a notoriously demanding environment such as Palermo, where expectations grow exponentially with each season away from Serie A.

But with games against runaway league leaders Sassuolo and Bari over the next two weeks, followed by a trip to fifth-placed Catanzaro at the end of April and play-off chasing Cesena the following week, the time for soul-searching is over.

Palermo are picking up pace as the race enters the home stretch, but can they produce a grandstand finish?