Tommy Wright thinks visit of Celtic is pressure-free for St Johnstone

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright feels the visit of Celtic is the ideal game to ease the pressure on his team.

Saints have taken one point from a possible 15 without scoring a goal.

But they remain in the top six of the Ladbrokes Premiership and have already drawn with the champions this season. And Wright feels the lack of expectations will help his side when they take on a team fresh from a narrow defeat against Bayern Munich.

"It is ideal from that point of view, although seeing them on Tuesday night makes it even more difficult,'' the Saints boss said.

"It's a game we are looking forward to - a good atmosphere and under no pressure because, let's be honest, nobody expects us to get a result, particularly when you look at how well they played against Aberdeen and Bayern Munich.

"They dismantled the second-best team in the country by far over the past few seasons and they were incredible against Bayern Munich and probably should have won.

"We are certainly not sitting here thinking we can't get anything from the game. We believe we can because history will tell you we're always capable of throwing up results.

"We were the last team to beat them and last season we were unfortunate in a couple of games: we lost 1-0 there, we were 2-1 up at home and feel we should have had a penalty then they get one at the other end, we drew with them this year. So we have proved we can get results but everyone has to do their jobs well."

Celtic can break their own 100-year-old record and go 63 domestic games unbeaten since Saints secured a 2-1 win in Ronny Deila's penultimate game as manager.

"If you go back to that season, on their day that team could play some really good football and maybe nearly be on a par with this team,'' Wright said.

"But the difference is the consistency. The consistently high level of performances has put them on this run. While Ronny's team could play particularly well, they never showed the consistency and hunger that this team has.''

Wright insists he is not thinking about being the team to stop Celtic's run.

"That would be nice after it,'' he said. "Our motivation is to stop the wee run we are on and to look after ourselves.''

Saints will have to do that without up to five important players. Brian Easton and Chris Millar are out, while Murray Davidson is "extremely doubtful'' and both Stefan Scougall and Michael O'Halloran only have an outside chance of playing.

"If we can get two of the five on the pitch I will be slightly happier," Wright said.