Tommy Wright does not believe Celtic will be motivated by revenge at McDiarmid Park tomorrow night.
But the St Johnstone boss is also pretty sure that the Scottish champions won’t let their title-winning standards slip.
Saints are the only team to beat Celtic in the Premiership this calendar year, with Danny Swanson’s goal-of-the-season contender giving the Perth men a shock Parkhead victory.
And they also ran Ronny Deila’s side close at McDiarmid, only being denied a late equaliser by a save-of-the-season contender from Craig Gordon.
Saints needed to be at or near their best on those two occasions, and Wright believes the same will have to be the case tomorrow.
“I think Celtic will approach it as usual,” he pointed out. “They will want to go out and win it.
“They usually take a decent support and they demand the players go out to win every match.
“They have high quality individuals so we have to be on our game.
“I doubt if the edge is off them. They are professionals and won’t want to lose. I would imagine they will try to be winning the last two games.
“We beat them at Celtic Park and here. But we know it is going to take very good performances against Celtic and Aberdeen to get points.
“We will have to be just as composed and disciplined as we were to get the win at Celtic Park, when Danny Swanson came up with a bit of magic for the winner.
“We have done OK over the piece so we should be confident going into the game.”
Wright added: “We are the only team to have beaten them this year and they might use that as a motivational factor.
“I don’t know if they use revenge as a tool. I know we certainly don’t.
“They may blood a youngster or two but that’s not my concern. Whatever team they put out will be a strong one.”
Scott Brown surprisingly missed out on a player of the year nomination from his peers, but he reminded everybody of his quality with the box-to-box winner at Pittodrie on Sunday.
And Wright is a big fan of the Scotland captain.
“I always thought when Scott and Charlie Mulgrew were missing last season they were a poorer side for it,” he said.
“Charlie has been injured but Scott is a top player and I think he should be involved in the shake up for awards.
“It is surprising he hasn’t headed to England because he has done well at international level.
“But he is playing for a big club and he is captain. So why move? Maybe there has been interest but he is happy here.
“He is certainly being successful at Celtic but he definitely has the ability to go to England. He could probably get a Premier League club but would it be one of the big six? It wouldn’t be a Chelsea or an Arsenal or Man United.
“The more players we can keep here the better for our league so it is good to have Scott here.”