St Johnstone defender Darnell Fisher has high hopes
Darnell Fisher is looking for St Johnstone to secure their top-six spot so he can enjoy the rest of the season.
The 21-year-old right-back, on loan from Celtic until the summer, scored his first senior goal in the 3-0 Ladbrokes Premiership win over Hearts at Tynecastle before the international break.
The victory kept Saints in fourth place and with two games remaining - at home to bottom side Dundee United on Saturday and away to second-bottom Kilmarnock in the last game before the split - Tommy Wright's side are seven points ahead of ninth-placed Inverness who have a game in hand.
While the Perth club should claim their fifth successive top-six spot, Fisher wants it confirmed so he can savour the season finale.
The Englishman told Press Association Sport: "We want to finish the season well, we don't want to be dragged down.
"We want to be comfortable and have a good time, enjoy ourselves playing instead of looking over our shoulder.
"You never know, anything can happen in football.
"You talk about it when it is sorted but it's not at the moment so we will keep trying to get results until it is official.
"Even after that we still want to finish the season well.
"We are fourth right now so hopefully we can secure it and we won't rule third out until it is mathematically impossible. We will keep trying.
"But they are going to be really tough games.
"Kilmarnock have a new manager and Dundee United are obviously fighting for their survival, so that will be a really hard game.
"But we are in good form so hopefully we can get a good result."
Fisher, who started his youth career with Farnborough before joining Celtic in 2011, described his season as "stop-start" but is happy to be featuring for Saints at the moment although he is unclear as to what will happen next season.
He said: "I have been in the team for a few games now, and I feel good going into each game.
"I have a year left (at Celtic) and we will see what happens in pre-season, see what they want. My agent and I will speak to them.
"I just want to play football. So who knows? I have not spoken at anyone at Celtic.
"I am just playing for St Johnstone, trying to do my best and not really looking at anything else."
Midfielder Liam Craig is suspended for the clash and defender Steven Anderson is out for a month with a hamstring complaint while midfielders Danny Swanson and Murray Davidson are major doubts with respective hamstring and ankle problems.
Defender Dave Mackay remains out with a hip injury.
Meanwhile, Dundee United midfielder Blair Spittal feels the club have learned the hard way that they need to match opponents physically first and foremost as they seek to improve on their record against St Johnstone.
United have only won two out of their last 15 meetings with their Tayside rivals and have often been outmuscled by the Perth team, but Spittal feels that will not be a problem on Saturday.
Dave Bowman revealed opponents viewed them as a "soft touch" during his spell as caretaker boss in September but manager Mixu Paatelainen has sought to remedy that.
And Spittal said: "It's a physical league and you need to be ready for it. At the start of the season it took us quite a lot of games to realise that: it wasn't all about playing the football we wanted to play.
"It was all about rolling the sleeves up and getting into the battle, and then playing the football you want to play.
"That's what we realise now, it's sometimes about winning ugly. With the position we are in, we have to be able to do that."
Despite their improvement, United remain seven points adrift at the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership and Spittal knows they will have to fight their way out of the predicament, starting at McDiarmid Park.
The 20-year-old added: "It's going to be a battle and we have got to overcome the battle before we earn the right to play.
"We have shown in recent weeks we are ready for that. We are starting to take points and win games that we wouldn't have at the beginning of the season.
"You look at the games against Hearts and Ross County, they are physical teams as well and we overcame that physical battle to take the three points. We will certainly be ready for it."
Only back-up goalkeeper Luis Zwick (knee) is unavailable for the trip. Full-back Guy Demel is pushing for a recall after a hamstring problem.
Source: PAR
