Alan Mannus has pleaded with the 15,000 St Johnstone fans who helped roar the team to victory at Celtic Park to “stick with us” next season.
A campaign that began last July with victory over European cracks Rosenborg in Trondheim ended on Saturday with an even more notable win in the club’s first Scottish Cup final.
The celebrations are set to continue for some time but the goalie hopes that when next season kicks off, a large percentage of those who watched the final will follow the team on a regular basis.
He said: “Looking back on it now, that game against Rosenborg really kicked us off. People were taking notice of us way back then.
“That game got our season going and I don’t think we really looked back.
“It gave us a great deal of confidence and probably helped us achieve what we did against United on Saturday.
“European games are always special to play in, and we now have another campaign to look forward to.
“The Rosenborg game was probably the greatest night I’d had in football up until Saturday. I don’t know how I’ll top that.
“We had 15,000 fans at Parkhead with us and you could see what it means to them.
“Hopefully they will stick with us for next season.”
Mannus admitted that Saints rode their luck a bit in the final, with United twice hitting the woodwork.
However, he says the players and management were fully deserving of some good fortune.
He said: “It doesn’t feel real yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks it will sink in.
“It’s brilliant that we were able to get to a cup final to go on and actually win it is something truly remarkable.
“To get the first goal when we did really gave us a platform. They had no chance to come back at us. It was the last header of the first half.
“After the break we defended well and they were having to commit more and more men forward. I thought we always looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
“Yeah, we rode our luck at times the free-kick at the start of the second half which came off the bar could have come off me and gone in.
“As it was, when I turned round it was there. On another day it would have hit me and gone in. Given the season we’ve had, I think we earned that bit of luck on Saturday.”