Tomorrow, the two shape up again at McDiarmid, with in-form Motherwell being led by their recently-appointed management duo of Craig Brown and Archie Knox.

The wily ways of Scottish football’s most- experienced managerial pair will pit their wits against the more youthful St Johnstone pairing of Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty in a game which has all the makings of another cracker.

Saints’ quartet of Graham Gartland, Jody Morris, Kevin Moon and Kenny Deuchar are back in training following spells on the sidelines, Gartland due to illness and the others due to injury.

Murray Davidson, who sparkled and scored in that opening day SPL encounter, is a doubt due to the groin injury which necessitated his removal from the Scotland U/21 squad.

Saints last home game saw them rout Hibs 5-1 with Steven Anderson settling neatly in at left-back.

He was lined up to play there again against Hibs in last Saturday’s 1-1 Easter Road draw when he had to make a quick switch to a central defensive position.

Graham Gartland took ill during the warm up, meaning Danny Grainger was brought in off the substitutes’ bench to take up the left-back slot, with Anderson moving to the centre of the defence.

Derek McInnes had praise for the former Dundee United man, stating, “Ando is so versatile and that’s a bonus for us as he can play anywhere along the back four.

“He trains well and works hard. In fact, he trains every day as if it’s his last and he’s played really well in the last couple of games.”

Derek describes Motherwell as “the form team” and he added, “We’re under no illusion as to how difficult a task this will be.

“Motherwell have been playing well under Craig and Archie, and they have a confidence and belief about them.

“They have good attacking options and pace up front — so make no mistake, this is a tough game for us.”

For their part, Motherwell opened up a 12-point gap on the bottom half of the SPL with victory over Kilmarnock last weekend — but manager Craig Brown believes Saints, represent a threat to their top-six ambitions.

Saints currently lie a point behind seventh-placed Aberdeen on the 28-point mark, but have three games in hand on fifth-placed Motherwell (41 points).

Brown said, “The best recent performance I’ve seen of any SPL team was St Johnstone beating Hibs 5-1 — and it was thoroughly merited. If they play like that, we have a major problem.”