Craig Levein hopes to inject ingredients from a famous win over Brendan Rodgers into his St Johnstone scheming come noon tomorrow.
The Saints manager was the first domestic gaffer to get the better of Rodgers and his Celtic Invincibles in December 2017. A stunning 4-0 victory for Levein’s Hearts marked a spectacular end to a 69-game unbeaten run in domestic competition for Celts in Rodgers’ first stint in Glasgow. The 59-year-old would love his new team to copy that blueprint in Perth.
But he’s wary of confronting a wounded animal after the leaders dropped points at home to Motherwell last week. Levein said: “It’s accurate to say that, most of the time, if you put up a really dogged and determined defensive display against the big teams, you’ve got a chance – first of all of getting a draw. If you can manage to take advantage of any mistakes Celtic make and then score, you’ve a chance of winning.
“Those things need to happen. We need to play really well, be determined and dogged, cover every blade of grass and outrun and outfight Celtic… and there’s still a chance you might not win.
“But give me that every day of the week and I’ll be happy. Everything went right for Hearts that day and we did exactly the things I’m talking about. We competed at a really high level and that enabled us to get a platform. We got goals at the right times.
“It was our day, basically, and I’d like it to be our day on Sunday. That would be good. Off the back of the Motherwell result, Celtic will be hurting. And that’s dangerous. They will be really determined. That is why we have to be the same.”
