Former Aberdeen attacker Steven MacLean has vehemently denied claims his team-mates gave up during the 2-0 Premiership loss to Caley Thistle on Tuesday night.
Inverness defender Carl Tremarco was surprised by the ease of his side’s win and claimed: “I think it showed St Johnstone gave up after 70 minutes, they just couldn’t get the ball and we kept creating chances.”
MacLean was an unused substitute at the Caledonian Stadium but is likely to start for Saints tonight at McDiarmid Park against the Dons and was having none of it.
“Accusing this team of giving up is the worst insult you could say about us, definitely,” he said.
“I don’t think we did give up but the performance wasn’t good enough.
“That wasn’t a St Johnstone performance because we pride ourselves on making it difficult for the opposition.
“It’s something we always want to do. We don’t want teams to come up against us and find it easy.
“We love making life hard for the opposition and get stuck in about them.
“We didn’t play well on Tuesday and we all know that, but we didn’t chuck it.
“The feeling in the dressing room was we let ourselves down. It wasn’t a lack of effort. We just didn’t turn up on the day and there wasn’t enough talking on the pitch.
“It was flat and it just wasn’t acceptable. Losing like that wasn’t good enough.”
There is a real determination to make amends when the high-flying Dons come to McDiarmid tonight.
MacLean said: “If we play like we did at Inverness, then Aberdeen will take five or six off us. We need to be bang at it.
“We might get beat but I can assure everyone it won’t be for a lack of trying.
“A few players have been struggling, but we will get a team that’s capable of winning.
“Aberdeen have been flying and showed great character to come back the way they did against Dundee last week. All the focus will be on them because they have the second-best squad in the league.
“We will have to be at our best to get anything. We know that.”