The weight of refereeing injustice coming down upon St Johnstone this season is heavier than Stevie May has ever felt before.
But the Perth players won’t allow it to crush them.
Saints have suffered controversial back-to-back penalty awards against them in their last two fixtures, with manager Callum Davidson admitting that preparing his team to cope with blunders has become part of his pre-game check-list.
As frustrating as those two decisions (and plenty of others) have been for a side which has also been forced to absorb a succession of injury blows, May insisted the McDiarmid Park squad aren’t being consumed by them.
“I can’t remember so many decisions going against us any other season,” he said.
“But we can’t get too caught up in all that. It’s not good to overthink stuff.
“When a decision goes against us it’s done. We don’t sit and talk about it all week or anything.
“You have to focus on the next game. People say they even themselves out over the season so we must be due a few!
“A few things could have gone our way which haven’t but that’s football. It happens.
“To be honest the talk of everything going against us is probably from the outside.
“We’re not talking about it day to day, every week – this decision or that.
“Obviously you see it after games when things go against you.
“The spirit in the squad is still high, even during the tough times. We are all in it together and we are all pushing in the same direction.
“Now it’s about turning that into performances, results and points.
Solid foundations
One loss in five is a source of encouragement for Saints ahead of Saturday’s clash with Hearts.
“It would have been lovely to get the three points at Pittodrie on Tuesday night and it was slightly disappointing not to,” said May.
“But it was a great save at the end from Elliott (Parish) at the end and it would have been a big kick in the teeth to have come away with nothing.
“It’s all about accumulating points. It’s better to have a point than nothing and we have added that onto the board ahead of Saturday.
“It was a horrible run we were on where we were losing all the time.
“We couldn’t get a result for love nor money but thankfully we have been able to stop that.
“We are in a more positive position.
“We have only lost one of our last five games but there’s been three draws in there and we have to turn them into wins.
“We believe we can do that as there are still so many games to play and it’s time to pick up some points.”
Hearts’ McDiarmid hoodoo
“That’s maybe more psychological for them,” said May. “I hadn’t heard that until an interview earlier this week.
“I know from playing at Aberdeen that people don’t like coming to Perth – it’s a tough place to play.
“We need to make sure we keep to that and make it ugly for other teams coming here.
“Going back to the 2013-14 season when I was first here and even before that, it was about having that foundation, being hard to beat and knowing that if you nick a goal, chances are you’re going to win the game.
“We are going to need to win games. I think that much is clear.”
