Tommy Wright has issued a strong response to suggestions his St Johnstone team could struggle this season.

The Saints boss also says he "doesn't know" whether Stevie May could return to the club, after a deal to bring the Aberdeen striker back to Perth fell through at the last minute.

"I’ll go back to when we won the cup, the pundits said we’d finish sixth, wouldn’t get any better," Wright says.

"We were fourth the next year, they wrote us off. Fourth the next year, they wrote us off. Fourth the next year, they wrote us off, said it can’t happen again. Then we did finish eighth and the slide was going to come, they said that’ll be it. Then we finished seventh last season."

Image source, SNS

Ross County, unbeaten at home in 16 games, have marked their return to the top-flight by impressively winning all four of their League Cup group games.

Hamilton were unbeaten in their four games and did win both away games, but they failed to qualify after penalty shoot-out defeats at home by Queen's Park and Partick Thistle.

Indeed, they have not won in their last seven visits to Dingwall.

Image source, SNS

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright on BBC Radio Scotland: "We’ve got to make sure we make it difficult for Celtic because they’ve got so much quality.

"If you make it difficult, you can stay in the game and get a positive result, try and frustrate them as long as possible. But with the players and pace we’ve got, we can hopefully cause them problems, particularly on the counter-attack."

Which of these captains will be lifting the Scottish Premiership trophy at the end of the season?

Give us your thoughts @BBCSportScot.

Image source, SNS

Livingston: Stewart, Devlin, Lithgow, Lamie, McMillan, Bartley, Jacobs, Lawless, Souda, Pittman, Dykes

Substitutes: Sarkic, Crawford, Tiffoney, Henderson, Sibbald, Pepe, Miller

Motherwell: Gillespie, Tait, Gallagher, Dunne, Carroll, Donnelly, Campbell, Polworth, Hylton, Scott, Ilic.

Substitutes: Carson, Grimshaw, Hartley, Long, Seedorf, Semple, Cole

Alasdair Lamont
BBC Sport Scotland

Livi are a much-changed side from the one that defied most people’s expectations last season.

Unsurprisingly, many of their top performers were cherry-picked by others over the summer, but they still have some of last season’s stars in the likes of Scott Pittman and Alan Lithgow.

Motherwell, having finished last season strongly, have also been busy in the transfer market and, despite the departure of Jake Hastie and Chris Cadden, have looked strong at the start of this campaign.

Image source, SNS

Celtic manager Neil Lennon makes seven changes from the side that sealed progress in the Champions League qualifiers during the week with a 2-0 win at Nomme Kalju.

Goalkeeper Scott Bain replaces Craig Gordon, while recent signing Hatem Abd Elhamed starts at right back in place of Anthony Ralston. Kristoffer Ajer replaces Christopher Jullien at centre back, with Jozo Simunovic also dropping out and Nir Bitton moving back into central defence from midfield.

Callum McGregor returns in midfield in place of Olivier Ntcham, James Forrest replaces Lewis Morgan and Odsonne Edouard leads the line in place of Leigh Griffiths, who is on the bench.

Image source, SNS

St Johnstone are desperate to improve after their shock midweek defeat by Forfar that knocked them out of the Betfred Cup, with experienced heads Murray Davidson and Michael O'Halloran among those returning for today's trip to the champions.

Image source, BBC Sport

Hibernian: Marciano, Whittaker, Jackson, Hanlon, James, Vela, Mallan, Allan, Newell, Horgan, Kamberi.

Substitutes: Maxwell, Mackie, McGregor, Slivka, Murray, Doidge, Shaw.

St Mirren: Hladky, P McGinn, MacKenzie, McLoughlin, MacPherson, Magennis, Flynn, Foley, Durmus, Andreu, Mullen.

Substitutes: Lyness, Baird, McAllister, Erhahon, Breadner, Djorkaeff, Obika.

Image source, BBC Sport

Paul Heckingbottom leaves summer signing Christian Doidge on the bench, with Florian Kamberi leading the line.

The pair played together in the League Cup win away to Elgin City, with Kamberi scoring, but Doidge has been sacrificed for fan favourite Scott Allan, the midfielder in his third stint at the club.

Paul Hanlon and summer signing Tom James start in defence ahead of Darren McGregor and Sean Mackie in the only other changes.

Image source, SNS

St Mirren make four changes from their disappointing draw away to Albion Rovers, with three new signings making their club bows.

Out go Jack Baird, Ethan Erhahon, Cody Cooke and Oan Djorkaeff. The injured Cooke faces a long spell on the sidelines, but the other three are on the bench.

Jim Goodwin hands debuts to Sean McLoughlin, Sam Foley and Ilkay Durmus, who all signed in the last couple of days, with Gary MacKenzie also starting.

Forward Jonathan Obika, who joined the club in midweek, is among the substitutes.

Ross County: Ross County: Laidlaw, Fraser, Fontaine, Morris, Kelly, Gardyne, Stewart, Vigurs, Chalmers, Mckay, Mullin.

Substitutes: Ruddy, Draper, Grivosti, Watson, Graham, Spittal, Paton.

Hamilton Academical: Fon Williams, McGowan, McKenna, Gogic, Hunt, McMann, Alston, MacKinnon, Cunningham, Oakley, Ogboe.

Substitutes: Southwood, Fjortoft, Collar, Moyo, L Smith, Mimnaugh, Hamilton.

All seems to be rosy at Celtic Park, but big clubs are reportedly circling for three key defenders according to the morning papers, while Hearts are being linked with former Stoke City midfielder Glenn Whelan after the veteran midfielder was released by Aston Villa.

Celtic: Bain, Elhamed, Bitton, Ajer, Bolingoli, Brown, McGregor, Forrest, Christie, Johnston, Edouard.

Substitutes: Gordon, Ralston, Hayes, Ntcham, Sinclair, Morgan Griffiths.

St Johnstone: Clark, Foster, Tanser, Kerr, Vihmann, Duffy, Craig, Davidson, Callachan, Kennedy, O'Halloran

Substitutes: Parish, Anderson, Swanson, McCann, McClean, Hendry, Northcott.

Highland League champions Cove Rangers are the big story in Scottish League Two after winning a play-off that sent Berwick Rangers down to the Lowland League.

Can the Aberdeenshire side challenge for back-to-back promotions? They have a tough start against the last club to take the step up via the Pyramid Play-offs - Edinburgh City, who themselves have high hopes of the title.

Brechin City v Annan Athletic

Cove Rangers v Edinburgh City

Elgin City v Cowdenbeath

Stenhousemuir v Albion Rovers

Stirling Albion v Queen's Park

Sportsound is just about to go on air on BBC Radio Scotland.

92-95 FM will be Open all Mics with goal updates from all the Premiership grounds while 810MW/DAB will provide radio commentary of Celtic v St Johnstone.

On BBC One Scotland from 16:25, Sportscene will round up the day's results.

Image source, SNS

Image source, SNS

From goalscorers and managers to spats and seagulls, a Scottish football season never lacks for drama and intrigue. Tom English goes through the new campaign from A to Z.

Falkirk have recruited a squad of players from the Championship and questions will be asked if they don't walk away with the League One title and automatic promotion.

Can Peterhead and Clyde replicate the form that won them promotion, or will their relative lack of resources see them drop back down?

Airdrieonians v Forfar Athletic

Clyde v East Fife

Dumbarton v Raith Rovers

Peterhead v Falkirk

Stranraer v Montrose