St Johnstone captain Dave Mackay has sung the praises of his team-mates for dragging themselves out of their sick bed to help the Perth side claim a stunning victory over SPL champions Celtic at the weekend.
Saints battled back from going an early goal down to inflict the first league defeat of the season on Neil Lennon’s men, with strikes from Gregory Tade and Rowan Vine.
Training was cancelled on Thursday, and the day before the match a few of the players were still suffering from a sickness bug that had swept through the McDiarmid Park dressing room.
Mackay said: ”I wasn’t one of the sick ones not yet anyway. There were about six of the lads who had the bug, and four of them were still off yesterday.
”Gary Miller was one who missed two days’ training, so for the likes of him to come in and do the job he did was brilliant. And Murray (Davidson) had to come off early after being sick on the pitch.
”With training being called off on Thursday, and some of the boys still struggling on Friday, we hadn’t done a lot.”
Saints boss Steve Lomas was delighted with his side’s result but wants to build on the unlikely win next week away to Ross County, who are unbeaten in their last 40 league games.
”My players were magnificent,” he said. ”You have got to keep making them believe and they did but it is only a start.”
Celtic manager Neil Lennon did not even attempt to hide his anger and frustration after an “unacceptable” performance, not least because he is sure the players will have no problems getting themselves motivated for the visit of Benfica in the Champions League.
“They need to stop listening to their own hype or people praising them,” he said.