THOMAS O’Ware insists this weekend’s Renfrewshire derby will be nothing like the last time the two sides met — because St Mirren have hit a rich vein of form to top the Championship table.

Morton handed Saints their heaviest defeat of the season back in August with a thumping 4-1 win at Cappielow and O’Ware described that clash as one of the easiest games he’s ever played in.

But the stand-in skipper acknowledges that Jack Ross’s St Mirren have improved considerably since that afternoon in Greenock and he admits Ton will find it much tougher this time around.

However, the defender insists Ton don’t fear the trip to the table-toppers and says his side will be heading to Paisley in search of another famous derby day victory for their supporters.

He told the Tele: “These are the games you want to play in, it’s your derby and you always look forward to these games.

“The first time we played them this season went well for us but they’ve hit a good bit of form.

“But we’ll be looking to get another one over on them and end their run if we can.

“It will be miles different this weekend from the last time. 

“We’re away from home now and I think that gives St Mirren the advantage. They’ll have the majority of fans there, they’re at the top of the table.

But O’Ware believes the style of football St Mirren play is different from Ton’s previous two opponents and may even suit the Greenock men on the counter-attack.

He added: “We struggled a bit trying to break Dumbarton down on Saturday and the week before against Brechin was similar before we managed to get the goal. Saturday we went a sloppy goal behind, managed to get the equaliser but we struggled to find the winner.

“But those games were against two teams who sit in and make it really hard to break down. This weekend will be different, it will suit us maybe a wee bit more with St Mirren coming out and attacking us. I think it will be a good game.

“It maybe has suited us a bit more in the past with teams coming and attacking us because there’s then more space to get at them on the counter-attack. 

“Maybe at Cappielow the crowd get a wee bit too impatient when we’re not winning straight away or it’s 0-0. 

“Saturday hopefully will be an entertaining game that we can get three points from.”

O’Ware, who netted 11 times last season, is yet to open his scoring account this campaign.

But he said: “Away to St Mirren is where I got my goalscoring started last season in the league — so who knows what might happen this time.”