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ERIC NICOLSON: Stevie May made St Johnstone fans believe in destiny and changed Perth club’s history forever

The striker is the last member of the three cup-winning teams to leave McDiarmid Park.

Stevie May sent St Johnstone to their first Scottish Cup final.
Stevie May sent St Johnstone to their first Scottish Cup final. Image: SNS.

It’s ironic that Stevie May has left St Johnstone just before a trip to Tannadice.

If Craig Levein was being selfish, he would have kept May in his matchday squad for one last fixture, delaying the Livingston loan.

Put simply, he has history with Dundee United. The good sort.

To trace the roots of the Perth club’s logic-defying trophy success over the last decade, you have to recall the transformational impact the man with the 1980s hair had on a team that was already doing very well until he arrived back at McDiarmid Park from his loans in Alloa and Hamilton, but had habitually failed to get to a cup final, never mind win one.

Before the 2013/14 season there had been double-figure strikers in the Saints team.

None of them, though, had a ‘force of nature’ aura quite like May, though.

And none of them could put a particular opponent under his spell quite like May did with United.

Five goals in three league games against the Tangerines – a hat-trick among them and all victories for Tommy Wright’s side – softened up a team that, man for man, should have had a superiority complex over Saints, rather than one fearing there was a hoodoo developing.

May was kryptonite to Jackie McNamara that year.

Dundee United fans have become used to seeing Stevie May scoring against them.
Dundee United fans have become used to seeing Stevie May scoring against them. Image: SNS.

And, as well as getting into the Tangerines manager’s – and his players’ – heads, just as importantly, he made sure those in his own camp believed a bit more convincingly.

He scored arguably the two most important St Johnstone goals ever to overcome the previously insurmountable Scottish Cup semi-final hurdle when half-time ‘here we go again’ defeatism was threatening to take root.

That shirt

And has there ever been a more powerful omen than a number and name combining on the back of a football shirt as a glorious prophecy?

Destiny? Destiny and St Johnstone? Destiny and St Johnstone and the Scottish Cup?

Pre-May and pre-May 17, this wasn’t how it worked in Perth.

Stevie May didn’t score in the Scottish Cup final.

But he dragged his team from Ibrox to Celtic Park and, on their big day, he drew United defenders to him with a selfless performance that contributed to a 1-to-11 collective triumph.

Lee Croft picks up Stevie May after St Johnstone had won the Scottish Cup.
Lee Croft picks up Stevie May after St Johnstone had won the Scottish Cup. Image: SNS.

Then he left.

A local hero had departed, earning the club a big transfer fee, on the highest of highs, having produced as impactive a goal-scoring season as the Perth club had ever known.

And he returned.

The second part might not have been as spectacular.

How could it possibly be?

May was a different player.

Enhancing a legend

He had been robbed by serious injury of the fearlessness and explosive turn of pace over a few yards that had drawn all the scouts from down south to McDiarmid and given him the opportunity to get shots away before defenders and goalkeepers could react.

Yet still he managed to enhance his legend.

A team player, a standards and tempo-setter, a man still with a knack of producing when he was most needed and a purveyor of the slide tackle goal.

There was the partnership with Callum Hendry, which was flourishing before Covid curtailed the 2019/20 season.

The contribution off the bench in the 2021 League Cup final.

The winner at Pittodrie, his 50th for the club, and the celebration in front of the main stand that followed.

The 10 goals in 2022/23, one of which sent a ball and Mark Birighitti into the net (his eighth strike against United).

Stevie May celebrates his goal against Inverness.
Stevie May celebrates his goal against Inverness. Image: SNS.

And, more importantly than any of the above, leading from the front and putting his team ahead in the second half of the second leg of the relegation play-offs against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

May is the last member of the three cup-winning squads to leave St Johnstone.

End of an era is a phrase trotted out so frequently that its impact has been diluted.

Not in this case.

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