With the way that the games have been re-scheduled, do you think most of the clubs making that decision did so on sporting grounds or purely looking to gain an advantage for themselves?

We all know sporting integrity is one of the biggest things in Scotland so I’d like to hope not but I don’t see why we didn’t go on the way as planned.

But if that is the case, oft, sporting integrity, we all know in the last couple of years is a massive part of Scottish football.

Could you envisage yourself playing in front of empty stadiums for the weeks to come?

Yeah, if that is the case, why not? If there’s a new variant in three months, four months, five months which there probably will, are we going to shut up shop again? Are we going to keep doing it when there’s a new variant every few months? We just need to learn to live with it, we take all the precautions we possibly can. It’s unfortunate that clubs have got players that have got Covid but it’s going to happen. I think you just need to live with that.

I think the hierarchy want clubs to do well in Europe, they want the national team to do well and qualify, there’s loads of games throughout the season, Covid didn’t go away at the start of the season, it’s still here, it’s still going to be here for a while, why not have five subs as well.”

With the winter break moving forward, is it a concern you could have a lot of games in such a short space of time?

They knew that when they made the decision and still made it so it’s on them really.

You’ve started racking up a lot of clean sheets again, what’s been the secret?

Not letting in any goals! Just defending better as a team probably, not giving away as many chances, although we did at Hearts to be fair. Just doing better to keep the ball out the net as a team. I know it’s an easy thing to say but that’s the reality.

How do the players deal with what’s gone on in the past week?

We just need to prepare as if it’s a normal week. The game is going ahead on Boxing Day so from the start of the week we’ve been preparing as if that was the case so I don’t think anything really changes. Wednesday when we were training, we didn’t know if the game was on or off so that was a wee bit disruptive but apart from that we’ve just been focusing on Sunday.

Where do you think the squad is as we close up now for the winter break, the last couple of months have been up and down but we’re ending on a positive heading into the winter break?

I hope so. We’ve still got injuries the same as any other team but obviously results have picked up the last couple of months, we’ve been more consistent so hopefully we can keep that going into the St Mirren game.

Are you expecting St Mirren to play a low block and get the ball out wide as we saw against Celtic?

I never seen the game the other night but I think in a lot of games we need to overcome a low block and a lot of defending. I think, as a set of players, and a staff we’re used to that so I don’t think a lot of that will change. A fair percentage of the games, that’s what we come up against.

How important is it to remain patient in games like that?

Every game it’s like that. We need to believe in your style, what you do and how you play the game and believe it’ll work. I think we do that quite a lot, you need to be patient, you need to keep possession and keep working it so I can’t see that being any different.

Just because you might be playing a young Covid-hit team it doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy task does it?

Absolutely, there’s no easy games. There’s no god given right for you to win a game, you need to earn it and we know it’ll be no different to that at the weekend.

Has the full week on the training ground been beneficial, has it given the manager a chance to get his messages across?

I think he’s done that from day one and the boys have taken that on board. We’re learning every day, how he wants us to play so a couple of extra days probably will help you.