Graeme Smith is hoping tonight’s Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-final tie not only sees St Johnstone book a place in the last four of the tournament.
He’s also looking to use the platform it provides to convince manager Derek McInnes to stick with him when Peter Enckelman is fully fit again.
First choice Enckelman will again be on the bench this evening as a niggling thigh strain means providing emergency cover for Smith is as much a contribution as he’s capable of making at the moment.
The former Rangers and Kilmarnock goalie knows he has to grab the opportunity.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing in front of 3000-4000 at Kilmarnock or St Mirren or in front of 30,000 you still have to do the same things to have a good game,” he said. “But there’s no doubt that performing well in a high profile, televised game like this one could only help my cause.
“The manager chose to start the season with Peter but I kept my head down and worked away and have been rewarded with this chance. There’s a good rivalry here between Peter and I.
“As well as being a good keeper, he’s a good guy but we both want to be number one and that can’t happen. Whoever is playing has the backing of the other. There’s a friendship between us, but we’re rivals, too, which is good for both of us though as the competition means we’ve got to maintain high standards.
“If you’re making one or two mistakes a game then you drop out of the team and you can’t complain about that because you live or die by how you perform in the goals.”
Smith revealed this isn’t the first time circumstances have conspired to hand him a start against Celtic or Rangers.
“It’s weird but on a few occasions at Kilmarnock I found myself going from being on the bench to facing the Old Firm because, either through injury or suspension, I had to come in,” he said.
Smith fancies Saints to follow Rangers lead in defeating Celtic if they are at their best. “St Johnstone have a record of getting to semi-finals in recent years,” he pointed out.
“It would be nice to maintain that and maybe even go that step further and make the final. It’s difficult to know what to expect from Celtic, coming off the back of losing to Rangers as they are.
“There might never be a better time to play them. On the other hand we could suffer a backlash. Neil Lennon will be telling them good teams don’t lose two in a row and they could come here really fired up.
“But we’re playing well with seven points from the last nine, and all guns blazing we think we can beat anybody.”