Saints have to getridoftheir cup hangover
BIG parties are always followed by big hangovers.
But three years after St Johnstone bagged their first major trophy, Steven MacLean has admitted it’s time they snapped out of their cup coma.
In the run-up to their 2014 Scottish Cup win, Saints made it to six semifinals in seven years.
Since then, it has been slim pickings.
The Perth side’s midweek League Cup defeat to Partick Thistle was their latest failure to fire in knock-out competition.
Now MacLean, one of Saints’ 2014 goal heroes, admits they must stop the rot.
“We want to find an answer to it,” he said.
“At the end of the day it’s not good enough. They’re one-off games and we have to be approaching them better.
“You want to be competing in these tournaments.
“We’ve been to semifinals, and we’ve experienced winning a Scottish Cup, so we know what it means and we want to get there again.
“But we’ve had too many unacceptable performances – like last Tuesday’s against Thistle – and we have to address that.
“This season, that means we have to do it in the Scottish Cup, so hopefully we can get a run going in that.
“Going into Tuesday we knew we were three wins away from a final. We spoke about that beforehand.
“I just thought we lacked a bit of energy, and a bit of quality, at times.
“We got into good areas, but we didn’t pick the right pass or take things on at the right moment and ultimately that’s cost us.
“The league form is more important.
“But because we’ve sampled winning a Cup we want to experience it again.”
Back in 2014, MacLean’s second-half strike sealed a comfortable 2-0 Scottish Cup Final win for Saints over Dundee United.
The celebrations that followed will live forever in the minds of Saints fans.
MacLean will never forget them either – or stop believing the McDiarmid men can spark more.
“It’s an absolute career highlight – it’s got to be,” said the Saints star.
“But if you’re going to have those sorts of days, you’ve got to win games, especially at home.
“It’s no disrespect to Thistle, or anybody else, but unless you get Celtic, you’ve got to be thinking you can win.
“And even against Celtic, on any given day you can beat them.
“They’re obviously a top side, but you never know in cup competition. So that’s what we have to focus on by the time the Scottish Cup comes around again.”