St Johnstone players taking the Michael out of wanted striker O'Halloran

Brian Easton admits St Johnstone's players have been winding-up Michael O'Halloran after learning the club had rejected two approaches from Rangers for their attacker.

The Perth defender shares a car to training with the former Scotland Under-21 striker, who has been targeted by Ibrox manager Mark Warburton as a transfer window signing.

Saints manager Tommy Wright is adamant that O'Halloran will face Hamilton Accies on Saturday after rebuffing approaches from the Glasgow club.

Easton recalled being at the centre of speculation himself before leaving Hamilton for Burnley earlier in his career.

He said: "Sometimes the speculation can be a distraction but I don't think the transfer talk will cause problems for Mikey, especially in this changing room where there are players who have been about and experienced it for themselves.

"We know how to handle it.

"There has been a bit of stick flying around, especially in the car up to training. We have been asking him if he wants a lift to Murray Park.

"Having a laugh about it probably relaxes Mikey. It's good for any player in that situation. But really it is all flattering and should be great for his confidence."

While Accies are looking to get back on track after an embarrassing 4-1 William Hill Scottish Cup defeat to Annan Athletic, Easton admitted Saints have their own reasons to chase three Premiership points after being knocked out by Kilmarnock.

"People will look at their result in the cup as being more of a shock than us losing to Kilmarnock," he said.

"But a few months down the line they will probably have forgotten their defeat at Annan.

"Going out of the cup was a killer for us. It was a game we felt was there for the taking, one we definitely could have won.

"After getting a taste of winning the cup a couple of years ago, we always feel we have a chance of going on and doing it again. That made it even more disappointing at such an early stage of the competition.

"Now it is back to league business. We always knew it was going to be tight with real competition for the top six places.

"In the last four games we are disappointed not to have scored but at least we have been making chances.

"It's a long time to go without scoring and that's not been like us this season. But we have been playing well enough so there is no sense of panic here.

"We are still in a good position but we want a win to take us into big games against Celtic and Hibs."