Celtic aren’t wanting for confidence coming into today’s clash with St Johnstone.
But exactly the same is true for the Perth side, according to striker Steven MacLean.
The former Aberdeen and Rangers man will clock up his 100th appearance for Saints in today’s lunchtime Premiership match.
With three goals to his name already this season, MacLean is at the top of his game.
So too the team as a whole.
“If you look at last season and he start we have had, it’s a great run we are on and we are confident,” MacLean said.
“We’ve played some good stuff and are defending well also. We haven’t changed much on this running – we’re sticking to what we know.
“Obviously we’re looking to play well and hope they have an off day.
“There’s no reason we can’t get a result as we’ve done it before.
“If you look at our record against them last season, we beat them and in the other game at Perth was close. We had a few changes with one-on-ones when it was 1-0 but they score a couple of goals.
“You look at the fixture list and it’s probably the best time to play them in between two big qualifiers.
“Brendan Rodgers has been brought in to get them to the Champions League, so they are under a bit of pressure and might have an eye on Tuesday.
“But they are coming into the game absolutely flying.
“We’ll find out on Saturday if it’s a good time to get them.
“We have done our work on them this week but we’ll stick to our own game and be ready.”
Maclean, who turns 34 next week, added: “You want to test yourself against the best and play in the big games. If you can’t get up for a game like than you shouldn’t be in football.
“There’s still life in me yet and if I didn’t have the buzz I wouldn’t bother.
“But I’m still loving it.”
The Premiership teams Saints have played so far – Aberdeen, Hearts and Motherwell – were all top six ones last season.
But, as their post-split unbeaten record proved, facing the strongest sides in Scotland usually brings out the best in Tommy Wright’s men.
“We’ve had a tough start but we’ve spoken about it in the dressing room,” MacLean said.
“You might as well play these teams early and get them out of the way.
“If we are sitting here with another result against Celtic then we will have come through a few good sides and we’ll be in good shape going to Inverness.
“We always seem to do better against the teams in the top six and if we can keep that up it bodes well for the rest of the season.”
MacLean couldn’t fail to be impressed with the 5-2 win Celtic achieved in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier in midweek.
But there’s good reason to believe Saints will make life harder for Brendan Rodgers’ side than Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
“They were very good,” MacLean admitted. “There was some amount of application and some really good play. It was a good win.
“It’s hard to tell where they are because they looked really good but you don’t know how good the other side were.
“They must be a decent side but we won’t know about Celtic until they come to Perth.
“Hapoel were very open but fair play to Celtic. Sinclair made some fantastic runs and linked up well with Griffiths. Forrest has come back like a breath of fresh air and Broony looked back to his old self.
“You look at their bench and the likes of Sviatchenko could come in. Add in Bitton and Johansen and although they might change the side you could make a case that it might actually strengthen them.
“They can afford to make changes.”
Saints will be without Chris Millar, Keith Watson, Michael Coulson, Tam Scobbie and Dave Mackay.
