Why Steven MacLean hopes St Johnstone's 2014 Scottish Cup win over Dundee United will be forgotten - and eclipsed by the class of 2021

There are few retired footballers that delight in the prospect of their legacies being lashed.

St Johnstone first-team coach Steven MacLean is "buzzing" about the possibility of his Scottish Cup success with the Perth club being "eclipsed" by the drive of Callum Davidson to become a cup double-winning manager in his first season in a frontline position. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Steven MacLean could never be placed in that camp. The St Johnstone first team-coach positively enthuses about the possibility that the exploits of his 2014 Scottish Cup winning Perth team - the first side to bring a major honour to the club - would be put firmly in the shade should the current incarnation add the grand old trophy to the League Cup they captured in February. In that event - which requires the McDiarmid Park club to overcome St Mirren in today’s Scottish Cup semi-final - Callum Davidson’s class of 2021 would see Tommy Wright’s class of seven years ago forgotten about, it was jokingly suggested to the 37-year-old the other day.

“I hope so,” McLean said with a huge grin. “I'd be buzzing with that. If the team was to do that, it would certainly eclipse 2014. They have a chance to make history but they need to make sure their minds are focused on the semi-final. I know it's boring but just concentrate on that and everything else will take care of itself.”

When it comes to St Johnstone’s blossoming over the past four months, Davidson, in his first season as a frontline manager, seems to have been capable of taking care of a legacy many considered would sink him. It seemed there could be no other way when he assuming the reins from Wright, whose seven years in charge brought returns even beyond the cup win that appeared entirely inconceivable.

Instead Davidson’s team are looking good for fifth place in the Premiership and he is now merely two Scottish Cup-tie wins away from St Johnstone becoming only the fourth club - after Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen - to do a cup double in the 75 years Scotland has had both knock-out competitions. Only 14 men can lay claim to having previously done so.

MacLean, appointed by Davidson last summer, marvels at how his one-time team-mate and assistant to Wright in 2014 has developed the club he inherited from the club giant.

"It shows he [Davidson] is a great coach, but not just as coach because Tommy was a great man-manager,” said the former striker. “For Callum to do what he's done...changing the system and the formation [in playing a 3-4-1-2] and getting the players to buy in to what he's trying to do. The whole club has bought into what he's looking to do. At the start we were playing well but weren't picking up results. But he continued to do the same things and play the same way. It showed the players, and they could tell by that, what he was talking about and doing on the training pitch made real sense.

“You could actually see what we were doing was working. It was just that final bit that was needing to get better and they bought into that. Players aren't stupid, a lot of people say they are, but they know when a manager or coach is talking sense and they know if it works in games. They could see it was working and it was just the fine details that were missing and thankfully they have got better and we've started winning.”

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