St Johnstone hitman Stevie May says the match ball he earned for his hat-trick against Dundee United will take pride of place in his collection.
The striker took his tally to 15 for the season as the Perth club brushed 10-man United aside 3-0, notching their first league win over United at McDiarmid Park since November 2000.
And May was delighted to get back on the scoresheet after a lean period of late, particularly in a derby encounter.
“I think it was only three or four games since I’ve scored and they have been tough games Aberdeen, Inverness, Hibs and Celtic,” he said.
“But I am always confident in my ability to score goals, so I never thought anything into it and we went out and put on a good performance to get the win.
“I think I’ve had four hat-tricks and one four in a game, so it’s not too bad.
“There’s a few balls kicking about the house and I’ve had this one signed so it’s always good to have a little memento for scoring a hat-trick, especially in a derby because it’s a massive game.
“That’s the first ball I’ve actually had signed, so that will go up somewhere I can see it now and again.”
United will feel aggrieved at the controversial penalty decision which led to them going down to 10 men after just 20 minutes, but May felt Saints merited the victory in any case.
He said: “They made a lot of changes and I don’t know the thinking behind it completely but we were confident before we saw the team, even more so when we saw that the big players weren’t playing.”
May added: “We played well, we came out and made it like a derby, which it was, and we battled away like we do every week.
“I thought we were on top when the decision came early, but for me it was a penalty and it was last man so it was the right decision.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=l20Am0jWi8c%3Frel%3D0
“I scored my last penalty so I was scoring this one as well! It was a weak header back and I think I was getting there but the boy pulled me back so I went down.”
Saints boss Tommy Wright hailed what he described as a “complete” performance.
“It’s always nice to get a win, particularly when we haven’t won for a few games,” he said.
“I was pleased with the performance and I thought we were excellent from start to finish.
“I thought we totally dominated and we were the far better team, so I just hope the performance isn’t overlooked by the fact they had a man sent off because even with 11 men I don’t think they would have managed to compete with us today.
“I thought we were excellent.”
Wright also praised May for scoring his first goals since the win over Kilmarnock four games ago.
He said: “He’s had a good season and it was maybe a wee test for him that he hadn’t scored for a few weeks in the league but he works hard and he is always a threat.
“Hopefully he can kick on again and go on a run. I don’t think he thinks it is ‘x’ number of minutes or games since he scored, I think Stevie’s a positive lad and I don’t think he would dwell on that.
“He’ll get the headlines but I thought it was a great team performance.”