Stevie May’s performance against Livingston has earned praise from manager Callum Davidson.
The experienced St Johnstone striker returned to starting duties for the trip to West Lothian on Saturday.
His pressing game and clever runs in behind ensured Saints looked more of a threat in the forward department.
And Davidson said: “I thought Stevie May was excellent.
“He hadn’t started for a while but he’s trained unbelievably well and he looked to me as if he was desperate to play.
“That’s one of the reasons he was picked. I know what I’m going to get off Stevie.
“We talked about the right times to go and press. When somebody sets the tempo everybody else has to go and follow.
“When he does it, the rest have to go with him or you get gaps.
“I thought we did that a lot better on Saturday and kept the ball more. When we did lose it we could set the press better. Callum (Hendry) did it as well. It’s not as big a part of his game but he did it for the team.”
Substitute Glenn Middleton had put Saints ahead, assisted beautifully by fellow second half arrival James Brown who had replaced the injured Callum Booth.
Davidson said: “James has come up with a real bit of quality to set-up the goal that Glenn finished off really well.
“I do think James can be a really good left-back.
“We’ve played him there in practice matches and he’s comfortable there, which isn’t the case with all right-backs.
“We did talk about what he should do in that sort of situation – take a touch and whip it in. It was a great cross.
“He picked up the pace of the game straight away. His last game was at Celtic. It’s about being ready to come on and make a difference when you’re called upon and James has done that at the weekend.”
On Booth’s injury, Davidson added: “Callum was struggling. His Achilles has flared up.
“We took the gamble to play him because it was a game we needed to take something from.
“He took painkillers and all credit to him for playing.
“He was feeling it in the first half and it came to the point when we had to take him off.
“If we do get to the play-offs hopefully he’ll be available.”
Craig Bryson is set to train this week and could well be available for the run-in.
