The St Johnstone players have been in the habit of picking up the pieces of shattered confidence after Celtic left town in recent times.
But that won’t be the case this time around.
The way Sunday’s clash between the two sides at McDiarmid Park concluded was traumatic for the Perth men but everything that went before has given them cause to feel better about their prospects for the season rather than worse.
According to Zander Clark the defeat – or rather, the standard of their football in it – should be a springboard to push up the Premiership table when the league campaign resumes and get a couple of Betfred Cup wins under their belt before that.
“I had probably my quietest ever game against Celtic,” said the Saints keeper.
“It was a real kick in the teeth because everyone had put so much into it.
“We had defended so well and dealt with everything they had thrown at us. I don’t think I had a big save to make.
“It was frustrating to lose another late goal from a free header.
“Even then we almost got an equaliser when Mikey (Michael O’Halloran) got into the box and they cleared it on the six-yard line.
“Craigy (Craig Conway) hit the post and we got into some nice areas without testing their keeper enough.
“But overall there were plenty of positives to take away from it.
“It’s not often we have been hurting after a game against Celtic because we’ve taken nothing from it. We’ve been on the wrong end of some cricket scores against them.
“We gave it a good go on Sunday and deserved to take a point. Now we have to build on that performance going forward.”
Kelty Hearts are Saints’ opponents tonight. The Fife Lowland League club were denied the chance to secure a place in the SPFL after the end-of-season play-offs were scrapped but Clark and his team-mates will be treating the big-spenders as a League outfit in all but name.
“Kelty have made no secret of their aspirations and they would have fancied their chances of joining the top leagues before the lockdown,” he said.
“They have signed some good players, with experience of the Championship and of course Tam Scobbie is with them, along with Dylan Easton.
“So they have a good squad.
“I certainly wouldn’t regard them as a non-league side.
“They will fancy themselves to get up into the Second Division and progress from there.”
This will be Saints’ first experience of playing football outwith the Premiership ‘bubble’.
Clark said: “It will be strange seeing how we have to deal with the Covid restrictions going there.
“But we just have to deal with it all and focus on our approach to the game.
“We have to turn performances into results.
“As a group we know the levels have been there. Keep that attitude and luck and results will start to change.
“It’s not a real concern. No one is hitting the panic button. We are playing well enough and we have been through scenarios like this before.”
Guy Melamed was Saints’ last transfer window signing and the Israeli forward could turn out to be the most important one.
“It’s good to add to the squad and have more competition,” said Clark.
“We don’t know much about him but the club will have done their homework.
“Hopefully he can get goals and bring out the best in the strikers we have here.”
Danny McNamara and Ali McCann are on international duty, while Melamed is unavailable until his quarantine period ends.
