As Joe Shaughnessy came out to speak to the assembled Press at Pittodrie on Saturday, his smile was as wide as the St Johnstone margin of victory over league leaders Aberdeen.
No-one could blame him for being so visibly delighted as not only had he scored one of the fabulous five goals as swashbuckling Saints demolished the Dons, the victory their third in a row had been secured at the home of the club he had been released from at the end of last season.
The Irishman moved to Saints in a bid to secure regular first-team football and he has done that and more since settling in at McDiarmid Park.
However, even he was surprised to get on the scoresheet for the first time since he netted for Aberdeen on September 25, 2013 against Falkirk in a League Cup tie.
And he admitted there was absolutely no chance of him adopting the current fashion for not celebrating against a former team.
Shaughnessy said: “I think we are a tough team to play, that has always been the case but I don’t think anyone would have seen that score coming.
“Given the way Aberdeen have started the season, we came up here wanting to hang in there and frustrate them and the crowd.
“No one was expecting us to go in 3-1 up at the break but we were happy to take it.
“That is the first goal I have scored in a long time but it was bound to happen here. I was happy to score as I don’t score enough. I don’t score enough not to celebrate. I didn’t expect the ball to come back off the post.
“I thought it was going in but it just came back into my path and I couldn’t have scored an easier goal.
“I never thought of not celebrating that never entered my mind.
“It was good to keep the run going. We had won the last two games and we knew it would be hard to come up here and get a result. It is nice to go into the international break with three wins in a row.
“We have been playing well and defending well in the last few games. We knew Aberdeen were going to have a lot of the ball and their movement is good so we had to try to keep a shape to hang in the game.
“We didn’t want to let them score early but as it turned out, we were the ones to score early.
“Any player who gets released from a club wants to show them what you can do. I am getting a chance to play every week at St Johnstone. I am enjoying it a lot.”
The first half saw no less than four goals shared between the two sides with Saints storming into the lead in just the fifth minute when full-back Brian Easton hit a sweet long-range volley past Dons keeper Danny Ward.
The St Johnstone fans had barely stopped celebrating that cracking opener when their team hit a second just five minutes later with Shaughnessy stabbing home after a Steven MacLean header had come back off the post.
Then in the 12th minute, the home side pulled one back when a Niall McGinn corner from the Aberdeen left was met by Ash Taylor who bulleted a header past Saints keeper Zander Clark.
The home fans no doubt hoped that would spark a sustained comeback but they were stunned when Saints re-established their two-goal advantage on the half-hour mark when a Liam Craig shot from the edge of the Aberdeen box squirmed past Ward.
Then just two minutes after the restart, Saints made it a fabulous fourth when MacLean sent a glancing header from six yards past the helpless Ward.
Incredibly, St Johnstone then scored a fantastic fifth in the 51st minute when Graham Cummins sent in a cross from the right with MacLean heading home from point-blank range.
As the St Johnstone support started singing, “We want six!”, many of the home fans had seen enough and headed for the exits.
To be fair, Aberdeen never threw in the towel but there was simply no way back for them as Saints secured a famous victory.
Shaughnessy paid tribute to the work being done by manager Tommy Wright and he also hailed the fantastic team spirit within this Saints side.
He added: “The manager was very pleased. I don’t think anyone expected us to win 5-1 so I think he was very happy. We will look to kick on after the international break.
“We are perhaps underestimated and not got the credit we deserved but I don’t think anyone can ignore the last three results.
“We have a really good squad and everyone plays for the manager.
“We all stick together and there is a great team spirit which I think you can see with our results.”