Michael O'Halloran will serve St Johnstone well in clash with Celtic

Michael OHalloran lashes home the only goal of the game at McDiarmid Park. Picture: SNS.

“I don’t know why it didn’t work out for Mikey at Rangers but I don’t think he got enough chances,” said the stopper after the flying wingman’s fourth goal in three games. “Maybe Caixinha’s been looking at what he’s been doing for us and thinking he should be brought back. I’m just glad he’s here.”

He’s well-known, and well-liked, at McDiarmid Park, of course and as Barrie McKay, Joe Garner and Martyn Waghorn were finding the net in the English Championship, the on-loan O’Halloran was ensuring Saints’ best-ever start to a Scottish Premier campaign with maximum points from three games, once more displaying the dazzle which persuaded Rangers to sign him.

On Saturday Saints travel to Glasgow to play Celtic and Anderson says O’Halloran will be invaluable there. “He’s a great ‘out’ for us when we’re under pressure. He gets up the park with those driving runs of his. We don’t expect to have many chances against Celtic, who’re absolutely flying, but Mikey’s got the quality to maybe give us a finish.

“He’s in an environment at McDiarmid that he loves, he knows all the boys, the gaffer, and he thrives on it. You can see that he’s enjoying his football now and scoring goals. That’s what he did before he left. When he came back to us he wasn’t down; Mikey’s not that type. But maybe he thinks he’s got something to prove. Maybe he’s trying to prove they [Rangers] were wrong.”

Anderson was the unlikely creator of his pal’s winner against Partick Thistle. “Mikey made the run left to right and I spotted a bit of space and put the ball there. I was like: ‘Go on, score.’ It was Mikey so he did score. But assists like that are not the norm for me. It didn’t come from the training ground or anything.”

Anderson doesn’t expect too many opportunities to make goals against Celtic and expects to be heavily preoccupied with preventing the champions scoring. In previous games Leigh Griffiths has required his fullest attention. “He’s very hard to play against because his movement is so good. He can make those kind of runs because he’s got players with vision around him but he never stops.”

Anderson admits the phrase “top-of-the-table clash” sounds strange as Saints are normally slow starters but he discounted the idea that Saturday’s game could be deemed a “free hit” for his team. “We want to try and get a result. That’s some run Celtic are on and it would be really something to be the side to bring it to an end.”

Fellow top-sixers last season, pointless Partick are currently staring up at Saints from the bottom of the league. Midfielder Adam Barton reckoned they made the mistake of trying to mimic their opponents, rather than play their own game. “You always know how St Johnstone play – there are not many teams better at playing their way – and we just got into the habit of trying to do what they do rather than play the way we play best,” he said.

Thistle need to rediscover their mental toughness. “That’s three games in and we would have some points by now. But if we want that top-six place then we can’t sit around making excuses.”