While he encourages supporters to keep talking about that, Irishman Dillon insists he and his team-mates will quickly push those achievements into the past.

“When you meet people in the street, they are still speaking about last season. That’s understandable, it’s the way it should be and it’s not going to change for quite a while,” said the full-back.

“For us, though, it has to become just a happy memory because we have to focus on moving forward and trying to do even better.”

That, he admits, will be easier said than done, though there isn’t a hint of a complaint in that observation.

“You are talking about finishing second in the league and winning another cup for it to go down as better than last season, and we know that’s not going to be easy.

“There’ll also be a great expectation from the fans, which there should be, and, while I’m not saying teams were not already trying hard to beat us before, they’ll really want to put one over on us because beating United will go down as a very good result.”

Good news for the support and bad news for the opposition is that, in Dillon’s eyes, there is no reason why this team can’t improve over the next 11 months.

“I think the big thing for us is that, so far at least, we’re all still together. While I’ve been holiday, I switched off a bit from all the news, but I know there has been a lot of talk about us losing players.

“Well nobody’s gone and, although I know there’s time for that to change, it’s looking like we’ll go into the season with the same team or at least the nucleus of it.

“That’s got to be good news, because we are still a young side and you have to think, if we get our heads down and work hard, we can continue to get better.

“I see we’ve added Barry Douglas from Queen’s Park and, although I can’t say I know much about him, I’m told he’s another decent young player who is going to improve.”

Another big boost for Dillon was the news that boss Peter Houston and his backroom staff of Paul Hegarty and Gary Kirk had all been fixed up on long-term deals.

“I was delighted, not just for Houstie but for the other lads as well, because they are great guys and they’ve done a lot of good work.

“I might not have too much good to say about them over the next few days, though, because every year the pre-season at United has been extremely hard and I don’t expect this one to be any different.

“It’ll be tough, but it’s been shown it’s a great preparation for the season and we know we’ll be ready for the opening games.”

Although offered terms to stay at The Hoops with little prospect of first-team football Fox informed them he planned to move on under freedom of contract.

As he was only 22, however, they exercised the right to demand compensation for his services and at one stage interested clubs were being quoted a six-figure fee.

That led to his spell in the wilderness and, today, Airdrie-born Fox was happy to finally be able to put that behind him.

“For six months I couldn’t play at all and if it hadn’t been for Gordon Chisholm giving me the chance to train with Queen of the South I would probably have looked for a job outside of football,” he said.

“Obviously, it was a situation I wasn’t happy about, but Celtic were operating within the rules so there was nothing I could do.”

Of course since he linked up with Queens, Gordon Chisholm moved on to Dundee and as soon as he got the call to team up with him again his mind was made up.

“Chis phoned me and that was it. I knew I was coming here because it was him who kept me in football and I won’t forget that,” added Fox, who had signed a pre-contract at Dens last month.

“It’s great to be here and every morning I wake up in Airdrie desperate to get through here and start training, even if it is pre-season and it’s been hard.

“I’m looking on this as a second chance and what happened to me is a real wake-up call. It’s taught me how lucky it is to be a football player and I just want to make the most of it.”

Fox’s challenge now is to dislodge a man he knows well – ex-Celtic and Scotland man Rab Douglas.

“I trained with Rab at Celtic when I was 16 and I know how good a keeper he is. I want to play, but it will be hard because he is one of the best keepers in the league.

“As well as competing with him, I think I can learn a lot because you are talking about a guy who has played in huge games for Scotland and Celtic.”

The Jamaica-born 26-year-old was also wanted by English League Two side Burton Albion with whom he spent part of last season on loan.

By joining up at McDiarmid Park, he became the second West Indian on the books, Trinidad and Tobago international forward Collin Samuel being the other.

Cleveland has spent his career south of the border, notably with Scunthorpe United and Carlisle United, and comes to Perth on a one-year deal having been watched several times by the Saints management team last season.

Although the player was on Brentford’s books last term, he spent much of the campaign on loan at Burton.

A former Carlisle team-mate of Dobie, Cleveland can inject pace to either side of the park, filling the gap left by the departed Filipe Morais.

Burton team boss Paul Peschisolido was disappointed to lose out.

He said, “I was hoping no-one else would come in for Cleveland — but it is a Scottish Premier League club that have come calling. He wants to test himself at a higher level — and I wish him all the best.”

Meanwhile, Kenny Deuchar, who is having to leave Saints due to his commitments as a medic, is likely to join Falkirk.