ESSENDON'S Brent Prismall has spoken of his relief after his missed set shot at goal almost cost his side Sunday's match against St Kilda.

The midfielder hit the post with just 35 seconds remaining, allowing the Saints to rush the ball to the other end of the field where Nick Riewoldt marked and had a shot after the siren.

Fortunately for the Bombers, the Saints captain pushed his shot to the right giving Essendon a two-point win and a spot in the top eight.

"[It was] a massive relief," Prismall said from Windy Hill on Monday.

"[When] I missed the goal, I wasn't worried then I remember Riewoldt marking about one metre away from me and I thought: 'oh no'.

"Lucky enough he missed and the rest is history."

Essendon's win was all the more admirable given they were down three men. Dustin Fletcher and Courtenay Dempsey (both hamstring) look certain to miss at least this week's clash with Fremantle, with coach Matthew Knights predicting the pair to miss a fortnight.

Meanwhile, ruckman Paddy Ryder will undergo scans today to a knee injury sustained in the match.

Despite his team likely to be down on manpower, Prismall is confident the Bombers can reverse their trend of struggling the week after a good performance.

"I suppose with the big games we have won, we have [then] let ourselves down a week later," he said.

"So that proves [to be] another challenge for us this week."

Essendon is now two points clear of the ninth-placed Port Adelaide and they have beaten some good sides including Collingwood, St Kilda, Carlton and reigning premier Hawthorn in 2009.

Those results have many at Windy Hill believing they can have an impact if they make the finals.

"I suppose when we’re up and going we are going all right but it’s just a consistency thing with us at the moment," Prismall said.

"Hopefully we can bring that against Fremantle this week because obviously it shapes as a really important game again for us.

"We’ve been to Perth a couple of weeks ago … we didn’t play too well over there so we’ll be looking to rectify that."