Dundee United old boy Danny Swanson is relishing a high stakes shoot-out with his former club.
The on-loan midfielder didn’t feature when the two sides clashed at Tannadice a few months ago, but it would be a shock if in-form Swanson didn’t start the most important Tayside derby of the season on Saturday.
And the Perth playmaker will happily put aside any affection he may still hold for the side he won a Scottish Cup with, to do his best to deny them a place in the Europa League.
“The next game against United is massive,” Swanson said.
“I didn’t get on at Tannadice. It was only the second game after I joined.
“I’m looking forward to it. Everybody knows what I think of Dundee United.
“But we need to beat them, and I hope we do.”
Saints and United are currently locked on the same points total in fourth place, which may still be the case after the Tangerines’ midweek clash with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
The McDiarmid Park men have enjoyed the upper hand over United in recent times, and Swanson has backed Saints manager Tommy Wright to devise a gameplan to keep that run going.
“The gaffer does his homework and gives us a good insight into the opposition,” he said.
“That helps us a lot, and I’m sure he’s got something up his sleeve for us to work on for the next game.
“I think they’re a bit worried about us, to be fair.
“Teams have written us off. Even at the start of the season the boys have told me that we were expected to be struggling. But St Johnstone always seem to make sure it turns out well in the end.”
You wouldn’t necessarily say it turned out well on Saturday, but it turned out better than it looked like it might.
Saints deserved to win this third v fourth fixture, but came close to losing.
In the first half Swanson struck the crossbar with a 25-yarder, Michael O’Halloran squandered a good opportunity after being put in by the on-loan Coventry player, and then shortly after the break both men fluffed excellent chances in the box.
With the match looking every inch a first-goal’s-the-winner, it was Caley Thistle who broke the deadlock against the tide, Aaron Doran finding the net off the under-side of the bar from just inside the box.
And it took substitute Brian Graham bulleting a header home in the 82nd minute six minutes after coming on from a perfectly directed Tam Scobbie cross to save the day.
Swanson said: “It was a great goal by big Bri. It was a really important one for us.
“He gives us an aerial threat in the box. It was a great cross and it had been well worked before that. We were really patient in our build-up play.
“I think we deserved it.
“I had a great chance in the second half and so did Michael.
“Their goal was a bit of a sucker punch because I don’t think they had many chances. We deserved at least a draw.”
Doran found it hard to begrudge the hosts their share of the spoils.
“We’ll take a point,” the Irishman observed.
“We scored against the run of play but I thought that after we scored we would dig out the win.
“It’s a huge game on Tuesday against United. The games against United are usually pretty tight. There’s a three-way fight for third and we want to win it.
“We’ve been there throughout and we don’t want to get pipped on the line.”
Wright reflected: “The performance was excellent but I don’t think we had the breaks.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get all three points but I’m delighted that we played that well against one of the top teams in the league. Really, the least we deserved was a draw.
“Brian’s got a few important goals for us. He came off the bench at Motherwell to do that.
“It was a perfect ball for a striker and he was in a good position to finish it.”
Caley Thistle ended the game with 10 men after David Raven received a second yellow with a few minutes left.
On 10 occasions referee Andrew Dallas produced a card, and it would be fair to say John Hughes wasn’t impressed with his day’s work.
He said: “The conditions were difficult, it was a lively pitch and a lively referee.
“I think he had a poor match. I felt he was out of his depth.”