Steven MacLean’s half-time battle cry midway through St Johnstone’s 2014 Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen is the stuff of McDiarmid Park legend.
And Stevie May believes his strike-partner that day at Ibrox can be an inspirational presence once again.
MacLean has taken on the role of interim Saints boss following Callum Davidson’s departure at the weekend.
Chairman Steve Brown will be banking on a Macca bounce against Hibs on Saturday.
As disappointed as May was to see Davidson leave, the three-time cup-winning attacker has faith in MacLean to get the dressing room response needed to secure Saints their Premiership status.
“It’s terrible when managers lose their job,” said the 30-year-old. “Especially someone I know so well from years gone by.
“When I was on loan at Hamilton, Billy Reid left and Alex Neil took over.
“That’s the only time I’ve had it before but I was a young pup so I don’t remember too much.
“It’s not ideal. We felt like we could have done more, not through lack of trying but things in games we could have done better.
“But we can’t dwell too much on it because there are important games to come.
“Macca knows what he wants and how to get us going so I think that’s going to be a big thing.
“I know him from playing up front together and he was always a big motivator – on and off the pitch.
“Even for himself. He always got himself going.
“Speaking at half-time was a common thing for Macca. He’d come in and say what he thought.
“The semi-final one was a motivating speech as much for himself as everyone else.
“He was always loud and I’m sure he’ll be the same as a manager.”
Succession planning
Succession appointments have worked well for St Johnstone in the past, with Owen Coyle to Derek McInnes and Steve Lomas to Tommy Wright proving the value of looking inside the building for a new manager.
Despite the fact there’s a greater need for freshness and change than on previous occasions when a manager has left, May doesn’t believe MacLean’s three-year coaching history with Davidson should be viewed as a negative.
“I don’t know who chose tactics and things like that but that’s not what it comes down to,” he said.
“It comes down to what we’re being told to do on the training pitch.
“This week we’ve had good training. It’s been intense and hopefully we can put everything we’ve worked on during the week into a plan and we pick up the points we need.
“I’ve no idea what the long-term plans are for the club.
“Macca’s the manager until we know anything else. We can’t look beyond the weekend and picking up points.
“The position we’ve found ourselves in isn’t great and it’s got worse over the last few weeks.
“It’s still better than where we were last year and three points would change a lot.
“It’s down to us to put the performance in and get them.”
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