John Hughes lit a fire under Ross County that was ablaze at Easter Road in midweek.
And St Johnstone have the task of putting it out.
David Wotherspoon expected a Yogi-bounce in Dingwall given his experience of playing under Hughes with Hibs.
But the Saints midfielder insisted that his old boss won’t be able to get the Staggies any more motivated than the Perth side for their first Premiership game of 2021.
“They will be fighting and scrapping for everything,” said Wotherspoon. “We need to have that same mentality and play with positivity. We know this is a big game for us.
“John Hughes is the kind of character who will have them fired up. He gave me my debut at Hibs and I owe a lot to him.
“But I won’t be doing him any favours this weekend.
“He was great and had that hot streak in him. Generally, he was a great guy and I had a lot of time for him. I still do.
“It will be nice to see him but my focus will all be on the game. I hope he does well, just not this weekend.”
The goals have dried up for Wotherspoon in the last few weeks but the Highlands could be the perfect place to start finding the net again.
“I’ve scored a couple of goals up at Dingwall,” he said.
“I’m really enjoying getting forward. I’ve been a little deeper in the past couple of games but have still been getting into the right positions.
“I’m not finding the goal-scoring form that I was in earlier in the season and I’m trying to get back to that.
“I’ve had chances to score and I’m disappointed that I haven’t lately. But I’ll keep grafting.
“I’m enjoying the way the team is playing and the way we are going about our business.”
The changing of calendar years would be the perfect time to kick a bad habit.
“Performances have been good but we’re not finding the cutting edge at the top end of the pitch,” said Wotherspoon.
“It has been a recurring theme throughout our season.
“Against Hamilton we created chances – had some really good chances to score – but couldn’t find the back of the net.
“Sometimes it takes one bit of luck, a deflection, anything, to get us going again. We know we can score because we’ve done it before.
“It’s just about trying to find that form again.
“We know that we are playing well and need to keep believing we will get the results we deserve.
“We’ve put in performances that deserve better results. We’ll keep going, keep the heads up and stick together.
“The positive we can take from Wednesday was that we got the clean sheet. We’ll want another on Saturday.”
