Familiarity breeds contentment? The only figure bigger than the number of penalties Rangers have been awarded recently is the times Celtic have played St Johnstone. Well, it’s perhaps not that many.

“As long as we keep winning, I’m happy to play them all the time,” said Scott Bain with a smile ahead of the third meeting between the teams in the space of a fortnight in the William Hill Scottish Cup today.

Bain has every reason to be cheerful, of course. Since assuming the role of Celtic’s first choice keeper at the turn of the year, he has played six games in 2019 and is yet to concede a goal.

With more clean sheets than the back court of a tenement on a good drying day, the 27-year-old has made the No 1 spot his own.

Shut outs don’t come easily, mind you, and Bain’s time as understudy to Gordon involved plenty of eye-opening observations.

“The biggest thing was watching the concentration needed to be a Celtic goalkeeper,” he said. “It’s hard. People probably think from the outside that being a goalkeeper here is one of the easiest job in the game but I can tell you it isn’t. The concentration levels needed are so high.

“You can go through a game with nothing to do then get called on once. And if you make a mistake, the fans are there to get on you. You can’t let your mind drift. I always try and stay connected to the back four. You’ll see I try to play quite high up so I can be with them at all points.”

Being comfortable with the ball in his hands is a must for any goalkeeper worth his salt. The Celtic approach demands that any custodian is handy with the feet too.

He is not quite in the El Loco mould of a wandering Rene Higuita but Bain is getting used to playing it out from the back.

“It’s a big part of our game,” he added. “The boys here make it really easy to play from the back because you know you can trust them to take the ball in a tight area. They move into position quickly and help you make quick decisions.

“We tried it a little bit when I was at Dundee but not to the standard we do here, and it was a bit over-complicated at times. Here we have it down to a good system. We [the goalkeepers] join in with possession and passing most days in training. The goalkeepers here can handle themselves to the standard required.

“It took a wee while to adjust to the pace and pressing of the players, but we can all hold our own and look after the ball.”

Bain was almost drip-fed into the Celtic team with a cup game here and the odd appearance there after arriving from Dundee.

A run of games is something of a new ball game for him and, in that sense, it is perhaps unsurprising that the old cliche, “one game at a time”, is a Bain staple.

“Every time I’ve ever played here I’ve taken it a game at a time, it’s the way I’ve been fed in to the team,” he said. “There was no choice but to take it one game at a time, and that’s stood me in pretty good stead.

“I don’t really look at the way things are as in No 1 or No 2 or whatever. If I’ve got the opportunity to play, I make sure I’m ready. It’s good to know that if my standard is not high enough then Craig is waiting to come back in. That pushes you on.”

And what about an outing on the European stage against Valencia this week? Inevitably, it is that one game at time approach again.

“I’ve not really thought about getting a game in Europe yet because the game on Sunday’s such a big game in the season for us in terms of trying to win another Cup,” said Bain.

“Once I get that out the way I’ll have a wee think about what it’ll be like to play Valencia.”