Callum Davidson is encouraged by the improvement to the defensive side of St Johnstone’s play which will be tested to the full against Celtic at McDiarmid Park on Sunday.

The Perth boss was happy to see a seven-game losing streak end with a  much-needed 2-0 cinch Premiership win against Motherwell at Fir Park on Wednesday night.

Davidson recalls the 4-1 defeat by Celtic at Parkhead on Christmas Eve which started that poor run but believes his side are now in a better shape to contain the league leaders, who required a goal deep into injury-time by Greek striker Giorgos Giakoumakis to win 2-1 the last time Ange Postecoglou’s side visited Perth in October.

He said: “There’s been a lot of positives to take from the last three games, there’s been good aspects of our play, probably more on the defensive side, and how we go about trying to stop teams playing.

“Against Motherwell I thought we worked really hard to do that and that was the most pleasing aspect.

“I also thought we did it well against Rangers (lost 2-0 at Ibrox) and again, they are a difficult team to play against but we limited them to few chances.

“Maybe with different refereeing decisions it might have been a bit different but I have been really pleased with that side of our game.

“I would rather go and play attacking football rather than defensive football but that’s where we are. It is important we do it.

“I thought the last time we played them at Parkhead we were a little bit too open, we allowed balls in behind us too easily, that’s what they are really good at.

“They don’t really change how they play. They play with a high tempo, something we need to match and make sure we can match their runs going forward.

“It is difficult but we have to make sure we can do that for 90 minutes.”