GARY Teale realised just how difficult the task facing him at Celtic Park today would be when he tried to do some background research on the computer and succeeded in finding nothing.

An industry-leading search engine may have been unable to help, but the Sunday Herald can confirm that the 36-year-old's first act as St Mirren's caretaker manager is to take the Paisley side to a venue where they are looking for their first win since April 1990.

It is a daunting first assignment for a man hoping to further his chances of landing the job on a permanent basis, but Teale knows managerial openings don't come around often.

"I might not get another opportunity to step into the breach and be my own man, for a long time anyway, so you take it when it comes," he said. "It would be a great statement from myself if we managed to go there and get a performance, and a point or a win. I tried to Google that last night, when we last won there, and it didn't really come up."

A native of Glasgow, Teale blushes somewhat when recounting his only real success in the city's East End; it was in Scotland colours, when he featured in the 6-0 win over the Faroe Islands at Parkhead in September 2006.

But he does at least have one famous victory against Celtic in Glasgow to speak of, the 3-2 semi-final win at Hampden in January 2013 which paved the way for St Mirren's historic League Cup win. He also knows that occasionally - as in the example of Garry Monk at Swansea City - caretakers can make themselves indispensable.

"When a manager loses his job a huge number of applications will arrive the chairman's door," said Teale, who stepped up from his player- coach role after Tommy Craig was relieved his duties in the week.

"There are coaches and managers out there who would love to take on the job so the fact I am the caretaker manager and have [been given] that opportunity, you can say to yourself, 'do you want to go and make something happen?'.

"If results are positive, you might get the job. And you can look at the case of someone like Monk, although obviously his case is a little different as he had been at the club for something like 15 years, came right through as a youngster, and [played for them as the progressed] right through the leagues.

"But I have been here for three, four years now and I have a great affiliation with the club. You really take to heart the things we have achieved, like and winning the League Cup. You would never have imagined that when I came back up the road. It is a great club, with great facilities and great fans, but at the end of the day it is about results and it is up to me to try to get them."

While Teale took great pride from his time working with then Scotland manager Walter Smith and his backroom team of Tommy Burns and Ally McCoist, two men merit the most name checks when it comes to his club career.

Iain Munro, assistant manager to Gordon Dalziel at Ayr United, made an early impression, before six years working under Paul Jewell at Wigan had a transformative effect on his career. A mid-table League One side when Teale arrived, Jewell soon had them riding high in the Premiership and going toe-to-toe with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United in the League Cup final.

"Day-to-day, Paul Jewell just demanded standards," Teale said. "You couldn't be on it one day then off it the next. How he managed to mould the character of the players, the ones he wanted to fit into his team shape and system, year after year - it was him who got Wigan to where they were."

A similar blueprint may be the basis of Teale's long-term plan, but for now his attempts to impart his own ideas on this St Mirren team will be restricted by the financial situation at the club, where the conclusion of a protracted take-over is thought to be imminent. "There won't be massive personnel changes," Teale said. "We're not sitting here with a budget. You can make subtle changes, training and preparation and how I see the football played."

The Tommy Craig experiment was a fairly disastrous one for St Mirren, but a line has been drawn under it. "I've told the players we need to move on," Teale said. "We don't want to be where we are in the league. If things go on like this we'll end up relegated, that's the harsh reality of it. No-one wants to be associated - whether you are a player, coach or manager - with a relegation."

One crumb of comfort resides in the fact that Celtic have been susceptible after their European travels this season, and Teale did some more homework by watching the 4-3 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night. "The unfortunate thing was I was watching it knowing they have four of their best players resting, sitting at home like me watching it on the telly."