Nicky Clark: St Johnstone players have let everyone down and are the only ones who can fix it

St Johnstone manager Steven MacLean was fully justified in berating his players before he was sacked, according to Nicky Clark.

And the only acceptable collective response to the 4-0 defeat to St Mirren that prompted his McDiarmid Park dismissal will be to redeem themselves against Kilmarnock in midweek.

MacLean suggested it looked like some members of his team ‘chucked it’ as the goals started to flow in Paisley.

Comeback striker, Clark, insisted there wasn’t a conscious downing of tools.

But he does know that standards need to be raised considerably if Saints are to start the process of moving off the foot of the Premiership table on Wednesday night.

“No wonder,” said Clark after the game, when responding to MacLean’s post-match debrief.

“We’ve let him down, we’ve let the fans down, we’ve let the club down and we’ve let ourselves down.

“This was a massive game for us and to lose it 4-0 is unacceptable.

“We’re the only ones who can fix it.

“Football gives you another opportunity and that’s what we’ve got on Wednesday night.

“We need to be a lot better.”

Clark added: “He’s obviously frustrated after the game.

“As everybody could see, it was nowhere near good enough.

“He’s right to have a go at us and show his emotions.

“We need to prove we should be here and that we should be on the pitch.

“The players in that dressing room are all good players. But it’s easy saying that – you need to go and prove it on the grass.

“We need to stick together and fix it. There’s no point throwing each other under the bus.

“There’s still plenty of time left to go in the season. Let’s fight and battle and see where that takes us.

“We’ve been nowhere near good enough from the start of the season, going back to the cup competition.”

‘Here we go again’

On the phrase “chucked it” being used, Clark said: “I wouldn’t say we gave up. It’s obviously difficult when you start the second half like that (conceding two minutes into it to go 2-0 down).

“It does hit you a bit – here we go again.

“You can’t chuck it. We’re paid to go out and do a job. And there’s no way we’re going to chuck it.

“I know for a fact that won’t happen.”

It certainly wasn’t the return Clark had been hoping for.

But, after eight months out with an ankle injury, the fact he played for over an hour without suffering a reaction was a bit of Perth positivity to come out of Saturday afternoon.

“It’s been a long time out for me personally,” he said. “It was good to be back out there but the result and performance was nowhere near good enough.

“I played 60 minutes in a bounce game a couple of weeks ago and that’s all I’ve done since February.

“I actually felt good within the game. I tired a bit but that was to be expected.

“I’ll do what I need to do to be ready for Wednesday.”