Keeping his cup heroes at McDiarmid Park is Callum Davidson’s immediate player plan for St Johnstone.
New recruits will have to wait.
The Perth club have been linked with a summer move for Dundee United midfielder Peter Pawlett, who will be out of contract at Tannadice in a few weeks.
Davidson avoided speaking about the former Aberdeen man directly but stressed that bringing contract negotiations with current members of his squad to a successful conclusion is the short-term priority.
“You will always get players linked with clubs at this stage of the season,” said the Saints boss.
“I think we will be interested in a lot of players.
“But first of all I have to work really hard to try and sign up the players I have got here.
“I am interested in lots and doing work behind the scenes to find out who might be available.
“But players coming in will probably be further down the line.”
Saints’ team performance at Den Park in the Scottish Cup win against Dundee won’t live long in the memory.
But when you break down the various parts of last weekend’s display, the link-up between Stevie May and Guy Melamed, which produced the decisive goal, showed real promise.
HIGHLIGHTS | Dundee 0 – 1 @StJohnstone #ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/aUAyW7Ffy4
— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) April 4, 2021
“As a combination, Stevie and Guy are quite similar to Chris (Kane) and Guy,” said Davidson.
“Their movement is good and they work hard.
“We looked at how we could get Stevie in behind Dundee on the right.
“I have good variation up front which I am quite pleased with.
“Mayso has trained really well over the last two or three weeks and he did a turn for us on Saturday.”
Murray Davidson has made progress in his recovery from a calf injury but won’t be available to face Aberdeen on Saturday.
“Muzz is back on the grass running,” his manager reported.
“Next week I’ll be able to give a more accurate picture of when he is likely to be back but it’s looking all good just now.
“We want him back fit for the end of the season so he can go and relax in the summer and come back good to go next season.
“The wee set-back in the week of the cup final has probably been the reason it’s taken him a bit longer.”
