Sweet win showed a few signs of promising times ahead

For the 285 St Johnstone fans at Fir Park, Saturday afternoon was like gorging on a box of your favourite chocolates. And there was a neverending supply of strawberry soft-centres.

A 5-1 win? Their best away result at Motherwell ever, it would appear. Oh, and the best scoreline by any team on the road in the Premiership this season.

The last game of a legend? One goal would have kept Steven MacLean and the Perth supporters happy, never mind three.

A Steven Anderson goal? You have to go back to the start of March 2017 for one of those.

They even got the chance to goad Nadir Ciftci for old times’ sake – and succeed in getting under his skin, it has to be said.

The way the afternoon was panning out, you half expected the substitute board to go up and Frazer Wright to come on.

But Saturday wasn’t just about bathing in nostalgia.

The most significant bits are those that pertain to what is to come next season.

Zander Clark was back to his best after bedding in as number one keeper again, Jason Kerr was outstanding in front of him, the two loan players George Williams and Matty Willock continued their upward form curve and provided more evidence they are worthy of consideration for 2018-19 deals, and young Ali McCann looked the part in the centre of midfield as a second half substitute.

Most importantly of all, the striker in whom Tommy Wright has placed great faith in to be the main man in MacLean’s absence next season showed lethal penalty box instincts with his diving header.

Days like this will give meaningless end of season games a good name.