St Johnstone defeat Inverness to remain in the Scottish Premiership

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Homegrown hero Stevie May climbed off the bench to ensure St Johnstone will play Premiership football next season.The Newburgh local, who starred for the club as a kid, entered this tense play-off for the beginning of the second half with the score firmly locked at 0-0.

Relegation was lingering with intent.Moments later, he opened the scoring to endear himself to the Perth faithful all over again.It was the catalyst required and soon after home fans were again dancing in delight when Cammy MacPherson doubled the advantage.Callum Hendry and Shaun Rooney produced delightful late finishes - both cheeky chips - to round off the win in style.Saints had been seeking to continue a top-flight journey that had recommenced way back in 2009 when, with Derek McInnes in the hot-seat, promotion was comfortably secured from the First Division.There had never been serious concerns of relegation until this season.

It had always been about looking up, not down.League positions from 2009 onwards were consistent and at times verging on the spectacular.

Eighth, eighth, sixth, third, sixth, fourth, fourth, fourth, eighth, seventh, sixth and fifth.Across that period, add in three major pieces of special silverware and a number of unforgettable results on the European stage and you had a club living the dream.And having won the cup double, the general consensus was that more good times were surely just around the corner.The glory days of 2021 could not have helped provide a better feel-good factor and platform to begin to think about penning the next success story.But the latest chapter turned into a campaign of struggles and one where Saints tasted victory in just eight of their 38 league matches, finding the back of the net only 24 times.