There was nearly a full year between Callum Hendry and Stevie May starting a match together up front for St Johnstone in the Premiership.
Courier Sport explores the history and future of a Perth partnership that was put back together against St Mirren on Sunday.
Promising beginnings
As was the case across the country during the lockdown months, Saints fans had a long time to contemplate the make-up of their 1 to 11 when football returned.
If you’d conducted a poll about who they wanted to see play up front, there would have been a strong chance that a Callum Hendry-Stevie May partnership would come out on top.
Nine-goal Hendry had been the top scorer in what would turn out to be Tommy Wright’s last season in charge and the combination with May was progressing very nicely.
In their first start together – the end of February 2-2 draw with Rangers at McDiarmid Park – both men scored.
They then linked up to good effect against the other half of the Old Firm the week after, with Saints matching the champions until Ryan Christie’s late winner.
And beating Livingston in the last match of a curtailed campaign when both were picked in the starting 11, and Hendry scored, whetted the appetite even further for those long football-free spring and summer months.
A new manager
By the time the next Premiership season began Saints were under new management and Callum Davidson was denied the opportunity to pick up where Wright had left off.
May was ruled out through injury in the first few weeks of the 2020/21 season and by the time he was back to full fitness, Hendry’s barren run, sometimes as a lone striker, had eaten away at his confidence.
There was only one occasion in the league when Davidson opted for this partnership from the first whistle – the 1-0 defeat to Ross County in mid-September.
The highpoint, though, was one of the most significant afternoons in St Johnstone’s history.
With May and Hendry up front, Saints came from behind at Fir Park to get past Motherwell and into the Betfred Cup quarter-finals, with the latter scoring the first of the two goals.
We all know what happened after that.
Reunited
Hendry was loaned out to Aberdeen for the second half of last season and a few weeks ago the two forwards were reunited up front in the same competition they last started, the League Cup, away to Arbroath.
Following on from that, with Chris Kane, Glenn Middleton and Michael O’Halloran stood down, Sunday’s Premiership clash with St Mirren was their first selection together for a Premiership fixture in almost 12 months.
So, how did it go?
The team Opta average position map was certainly encouraging.
May and Hendry were the closest together of any two Saints forwards since the season began.
The fact that they only managed to successfully link up once in their 65 minutes on the park is the flipside of the statistical coin, however.
The naked eye told you that Saints’ attacking threat was far greater with substitutes Middleton and Kane on than it had been with starters Hendry and May.
Individually, Hendry is doing most of his work well away from goal these days but, on a more positive note, May’s six touches in the St Mirren box (he only had 20 overall) was the highest total of any Perth attacker in a league game so far this season.
With Eetu Vertainen hopefully available after the international break and another forward signing possible before the transfer window shuts on Tuesday night, Davidson’s attacking options should soon be deeper.
Hendry (if he doesn’t get loaned out again) and May have qualities the manager admires but there’s a strong chance a partnership that once promised so much may never be be a starting Premiership one again.
