St Johnstone defender Danny Grainger will face Aberdeen tonight still harbouring a sense of grievance at the outcome of the sides’ last meeting.
He remains bitter over the controversial spot-kick decision — when he was judged to have fouled Lee Miller — that handed Aberdeen three points at Pittodrie in November, and he’s looking for pay-back.
“I felt really aggrieved at that decision,” he said. “I’ve only scored once this season — at Hamilton — so hopefully I can get a bit of revenge by scoring the winner.”
Saints leap-frogged the Dons into seventh place in the SPL courtesy of their weekend win over Falkirk, moving to within six points of Hearts.
However, having moved 11 points clear of bottom side Falkirk, Grainger feels it’s time for them to be looking up the league.
“I’m not saying we are safe yet, but it would take a lot to turn over 11 points at this stage of the season.
“Staying in the SPL has been our priority from day one, but from the position we are now in why shouldn’t we try to claim the last top six spot?”
Saints manager Derek McInnes warned his players to remain focused, despite having all but staved off any threat of relegation.
“Before the season got going assistant Tony Docherty and myself set a points target privately that we felt would keep us in the SPL.
“We still haven’t achieved that, so there’s no question of the players switching off and downing tools. We got a massive three points at Falkirk, but there is still work to be done.
“It’s all very well having games in hand, but they have to be turned into points.
“We have done that against Hibs and Falkirk and now we have to beat Aberdeen.
“We have just got our noses in front of them and the approach has to be right again.
“So far we haven’t had any real consistency of results. We haven’t had a series of defeats to hit a slump or wins to get us further up the table,” he added.
“The challenge now is to get a few wins.
“Every game brings its own challenges. Motherwell came here on a great run, Falkirk are fighting for their lives and now Aberdeen will be trying to end a poor run of results.
“They will see this as a chance to reverse their fortunes and get back to winning ways, but we have to make sure their run starts elsewhere and not in Perth.”
Graham Gartland comes back into contention after a virus, but Steven Anderson (knee) and Collin Samuel (calf) are both sidelined.