Steven MacLean: St Johnstone need wins to stop becoming detached – and they need them soon

St Johnstone manager Steven MacLean doesn’t believe a gap opening up between his team and the Premiership pack is a cause for panic.

But the need to stop themselves becoming detached is urgent.

Winless and bottom-of-the-table Saints are now three points adrift from the next club above them, Aberdeen, and four off a trio of more realistic league rivals.

One of those sides is Livingston, who visit McDiarmid Park on Saturday.

And MacLean is making no attempt to minimise the importance of the Perth outfit registering a victory against David Martindale’s men.

“I’m not going to sit here and say everything is rosy because it’s not,” he said.

“It sounds stupid – and I don’t like saying it – but in some ways I don’t think we’re far away.

“I know we need results and they need to come soon. It’s as simple as that.

“I’ll not shirk anything – I’m not that type of guy. I’ll meet it head-on.

“This is a big week. We need to try and beat Livingston, that’s all there is to it.

“There’s no panic but if you don’t start winning, you become detached. So we need to do that soon.

“I’ve been in these situations before.

“I’m comfortable with it and we have to start putting points on the board.”

Attacking options shrink for St Johnstone manager

MacLean explained his thinking behind reprising Stevie May’s lone-striker role at Easter Road at the weekend.

“We worked all week on shape and then (Chris) Kane had to drop out late on Friday,” he said.

“At that point, there isn’t a like-for-like replacement.

“If I’d gone with May and (Luke) Jephcott then I wouldn’t have had a recognised striker on the bench.

“Ideally, I’ve got four fit strikers but there are only two just now.

“It does force your hand a bit.

“We’ll have a look at things again this week.

“We got a lot of final third entries and crosses in the game.

“Getting more bodies in the box is something I’ve spoken about a lot.”

Clark is unlikely to be available on Saturday and Kane is already a doubt as well.

It’s a deflating return to the days of limited scope for centre-forward manoeuvre.

“I thought I was there a couple of weeks ago,” said MacLean. “I thought I had all four.

“For two days they were all on the training ground together.

“We played 4-4-2 in the closed-doors game against St Mirren and I was like ‘yeah, this is it, I’ve got good options now’.

“I could go a 3-5-2, a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 with one striker dropping in.

“It’s kind of gone back to square one in that regard.

“Hopefully I’ll have those options soon.”

Luke Jephcott needs to seize his chance

Jephcott hasn’t started a game for a month.

Catching the eye through the week and when he gets substitute game-time is his solution to altering that.

“When he comes on he needs to affect the game and do well enough to put himself in my thoughts to start the next one,” said MacLean.

“I would have hoped he’d be fully up and running by now.

“It’s up to him to take his opportunities when they come.

“He needs to show me during the week as well – which is the same for all the players.”