Defeats don’t come much more painful than exiting the Scottish Cup as holders to lower league opposition.
But bounce backs don’t come any better than beating the league champions and treble-chasing form team in the country.
Just as well bouncing back from a painful defeat is St Johnstone’s forte.
And that’s what they are aiming to prove once more when Celtic visit McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
“Obviously the lads were gutted to go out of the cup but we need to put it behind us now,” striker Michael O’Halloran admitted.
“The aim is to get back on track and to finish in the top six. We’ll do everything we can to do that.
“You could see in the dressing room how devastated we all were.
“To not put up a better challenge in our defence of the cup is a major disappointment. We played really poorly.
“This time last year we played Forfar on the astro and we were very good. That’s why it’s so disappointing that we went out at the same stage. It’s not as if we made it into the latter rounds.
“I didn’t even look at the results on Sunday. Now that we’re out it didn’t interest me.”
The Celtic old boy added: “Saturday’s a TV game, and it’s a chance to show we’re a good team again.
“Celtic are flying so it will be a good test.
“Those are the games we do well in though. Aberdeen was the most recent example. The lads were excellent that day.
“If we work as hard as that and pass the ball about, we should be able to put on a performance and put things right.
“Top six is the aim but if we can get higher, even better.
“If we can get into the top six we can try and put Hamilton under pressure and maybe catch them.
“Realistically, I think we can do it.”
For Celtic, the Saints match is sandwiched between a Premiership game against Partick Thistle last night and a Europa League last-32 clash with Inter MIlan on Thursday.
With that in mind, Parkhead boss Ronny Deila may well rotate his squad in Perth for the lunchtime kick-off.
According to O’Halloran though, that won’t make them any weaker.
“They’ve got a big squad but we know that whoever they play they’ll be quality players,” he pointed out.
“Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven were very influential at Dundee United and I’m sure they’ll be good signings for Celtic. They might play.
“I personally think they’re getting to know their manager now and they’re playing some nice football.
“They’ve been very good in their last few games you saw that on Saturday against Dundee.
“But we’re at home and we like to attack. We’ll be wary of them but the manager will have a game plan.”
O’Halloran had the best chance of the match for Saints at Palmerston last weekend – a close-range effort at the back post that he scuffed past the post.
“I’ve watched it back and I should have met it and headed it,” the ex-Bolton frontman reflected. “But I let it drop.
“It showed that it wasn’t our day. It was disappointing but we all miss chances.”
Like several others in the Perth squad, O’Halloran is happy to be back on grass this weekend.
“I must have done something in training on Tuesday because I woke up with a really stiff back on Wednesday,” he explained.
“It was niggling me for the rest of the week so the gaffer put me on the bench at Dumfries.
“The astro is a harder surface anyway, but the cold makes it even harder. I think he was trying to protect a few of the boys.”