Steven MacLean would love to still have a Europa League place to go for.
But the St Johnstone striker admitted that a proper close-season break for the first time in five years may prove to be a blessing.
The MacLean children certainly think so.
“My holiday got booked the day after Rangers reached the Scottish Cup final,” the Perth frontman said. “Because we knew we wouldn’t have an early start with Europe.
“My kids were at me to go to Disneyland so there were three people happy in my house when they knew we weren’t in Europe.
“There are positives and negatives when it comes to missing out on Europe. We need a break because we’ve only been getting two or three weeks for four years.
“It’s the same nucleus of squad so six weeks off will help us – especially us old ones! The only downside when you get longer off is that pre-season will be tougher.
“We will take the positives out of it and that’s that we’re going to get an extended break.”
MacLean was one of the goalscorers in the Friday night demolition of Aberdeen.
Not for the first time, Saints showed that underestimating them is a mug’s game.
“People probably thought with us losing our last two games before the split that the season would fizzle out,” he said.
“But when people write you off it’s a great thing because it means you have an incentive to prove them wrong.
“Throughout my career here people have written us off and you just want to prove them wrong.
“Our own fans probably even thought the season would fizzle out but we showed against Aberdeen we want fourth place – and take more money off the chairman!”
MacLean added: “It all came together for us against Aberdeen and we showed what a good side we can be on our day.
“People might say Aberdeen didn’t turn up but we made them look poor with our performance.
“Our work rate was outstanding, our pressing was second to none, and they couldn’t handle the tempo we played at.
“From back to front we were outstanding and that showed with a couple of the goals.”
After the Dons game manager Tommy Wright joked that he’d warned his players pre-match not to “get the suntan lotion and Speedos out yet”.
According to MacLean summer hols are on the McDiarmid players’ minds, but not for a reason that should give cause for concern to supporters.
He explained: “Despite what the manager said, a few of the boys are looking the speedos out and thinking about our holidays but we’re thinking of the extra bonus money for our summer break.
“Listen, if you look at a few of the boys in that dressing room it wouldn’t be a pretty sight seeing them on a beach with their bodies!
“The club get more money for finishing higher up the league and they reward the players so the better it is for ourselves.
“But regardless of money there is personal pride and it’s great to keep finishing in the top six. Now we want to finish fourth.
“We had a dip around the Christmas period but we showed character to come back from that and shown what a good side we are.”
The only downside of Friday night was Murray Davidson coming off with a hamstring strain. He will be assessed today to see if his season is over.
