ST JOHNSTONE midfielder Cammy MacPherson admits relief was the overriding emotion as the Perth side secured their Premiership safety with a second-leg play-off victory over Inverness on Monday night.
Saints ran out 6-2 winners on aggregate, as they defeated Billy Dodd’s Caley Thistle 4-0 on the night.
MacPherson bagged the second of the evening, with his long-range effort taking a wicked deflection to completely wrong-foot Inverness keeper Mark Ridgers.
Stevie May, Callum Hendry and Shaun Rooney were the other goalscorers for Callum Davidson’s side.
MacPherson revealed he could not help but drop to his knee once the final two goals went in during the dying moments of the match.
And he is determined that there will be no such repeat for Saints next term, with a return to the top six as well as a good cup run among his hopes and ambitions.
He said: “It’s the biggest relief ever. When the third and fourth goals went in, I dropped to my knees. I’m so happy we got it over the line, especially after the first tie when we could’ve been three or four up.
“It’s the first goal I’ve scored in about a year. I’ll take what I can get though, especially with a deflection.
“We’re the Premiership team, so we were expected to win. No disrespect to Inverness, all the pressure was on us whereas they probably had a bit of a free hit. I thought we dealt with It pretty well over the two legs.
“Personally and collectively it’s been so up and down. We went through a real sticky patch through November and December.
“Since the turn of the year though, I think we’re sixth in the form table. We’ve had a bit of uplift.
“It’s not been the season we wanted but we’ve finished in the right way.
“We don’t want to be in this position next year – we want to be fighting for top six and going deep into the cup competitions.
“It’s a good learning curve to be playing under the pressure of nearly being relegated, even although you don’t really want to be in that situation. But it’s a real credit to the club to come through it.
“You want to repay the manager for bringing you into the club. Injuries and form, it’s been a difficult one. Hopefully I’ll come back next year and put a run of games together. I don’t think I’ve played more than three-in-a-row since I arrived due to what I’ve already mentioned and the international break.”
There are a number of players out of contract at the club in the coming weeks, including mainstays like Zander Clark, Shaun Rooney and Callum Hendry.
While unsure of what the future holds for any of his teammates, MacPherson insists they will go with everyone’s best wishes.
As he also touched upon the impact of a big home crowd at McDiarmid, he added: “It will be sad to see Zander go because he came through the youth system here. It was a good send off for the big man though, he got his clean sheet.
“The place was rocking tonight. They probably dragged us over the line.
“At 2-0, it was getting a bit nervy, but I thought they helped to drag us over the line.”
Davidson commented on Monday: “It’s great. I’ve been thinking in my head ‘what happens if we go down, what happens if we stay up.’ Now it’s going to be a nice conversation.
“I think as a club we have to understand where we are. We’ve started the last three or four seasons poorly – now we really have to start the season to give us a chance.
“I think Zander’s a definite. But Shaun’s definitely one we’ll be fighting to keep. Callum Hendry, Murray Davidson too.”
