Stevie May is yet to reach the heights St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright believes he will hit in his second spell at the Perth club.
But his late goal against Hibs a fortnight ago will be another stepping stone on the road back to his best.
May comes up against the club who let him go in the summer on Sunday and Wright said: “Stevie did well for his goal against Hibs and was the one bright spot in what was a disappointing afternoon.
“I still don’t think he’s at the level he can get to, but that’s the case for a few players here this season.
“He is working hard, he’s looking sharp and getting another goal will only help his confidence.”
Saints’ second half performance in the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen earlier in the season is a good template for this weekend’s contest.
But Wright stressed once more the importance of making sure they hit the ground running.
He said: “Once again (against Hibs) we got off to a bad start and even though we’d won two games before that, we were not in the place we want to be.
“Losing another early goal affected us and the opening 20 minutes were nowhere near good enough.
“So we know we can’t afford to start like that this weekend.
“We played well up at Aberdeen last time and could have won the game in the second half.
“They are in a different place this time because Derek (McInnes) has a lot of his injured players back and they’ve picked up a few results.
“So it’s going to be tough, no doubt about that. But if we play like we did in the second half at Pittodrie we’ll give ourselves a chance to pick up three points.”
