McInnes has overseen an impressive debut season in the SPL
By Andy Campbell
Tuesday's impressive 4-1 rout of Rangers was just a flavour of a season peppered by significant victories for St Johnstone.
The Perth side returned to Scotland's top flight after a seven-year absence when they clinched last season's First Division title and now Derek McInnes's side have their sights set on finishing in the top six of the Scottish Premier League.
"For us to even get mentioned and talked about being in the top six is testament to the players," McInnes told BBC Scotland.
"There are signs that we are progressing but it's important that we continue to do that.
"We knew we would have to react to losing games this year and that's been the most pleasing thing, that we've always seemed to come out in the next game not feeling sorry for ourselves but desperate to make amends. We've only lost two games on the spin all season.
"It was important that we tried to finish the season as strongly as we could and I wasn't surprised with the performance against Rangers because there's been a similar type of performance in a lot of games this season."
The close season saw McInnes add Kenny Deuchar, Murray Davidson, Danny Grainger and Filipe Morais to a squad that contained a few experienced campaigners like Jody Morris, Paul Sheerin and Collin Samuel.
St Johnstone's SPL return got off to a slow start with only three points from their opening six games and they had to wait until October for their first league win against Hamilton.
However, by then Saints had already knocked Hibernian out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup and claimed another scalp in the next round by ousting near neighbours Dundee United.
A seminal moment in McInnes' debut season as an SPL manager was watching his side come back from a goal down to beat Hearts at Tynecastle in November and Peter MacDonald's Boxing Day hat-trick at Fir Park provided festive cheer.
Cillian Sheridan joined on-loan from Celtic in January to bolster the attack, experienced former Chelsea defender Michael Duberry was another mid-season capture and both played starring roles in the memorable 5-1 win over Hibs in February.
And the March victory over Aberdeen confirmed St Johnstone as genuine top six contenders before Rangers were swept aside.
"You would never ever have imagined the scoreline but I did believe that we could go and cause Rangers problems," said McInnes.
"It was a big ask; to do it against the team at the top of the league because they are such strong opposition."
The sight of your chairman waiting in the tunnel can often be a daunting prospect for a manager, but Geoff Brown's descent from the stand was an entirely celebratory act after Saints had humbled the Ibrox side.
Liam Craig has weighed in with 10 goals from midfield
"You know you've stimulated him a wee bit when he's down there," McInnes said of Brown's appearance.
"He's been a great chairman and he always stays up the stairs. Very rarely does he come down but he came down to the players' area to shake everybody's hand. He was delighted with the result and we've got to be.
"Everybody associated with St Johnstone has got to enjoy it. These results don't come along very often."
And Brown will no doubt have more hands to shake if Saints overcome a two-point gap to pip Hearts to a place in the top six.
"It's in Hearts' hands, they can go and win both of their games (before the league splits in two). We'll just go and try and win the next one and see where it takes us.
"We've got a tough match against Dundee United on Easter Monday but we're at home and we'll try to make that count.
"If we can have a similar performance, hopefully we can do enough to win but Hearts are fully expected to be in the top six. There's a pressure and demand for them to at least be there with the size of club they are."
Owen Coyle made his name in management at McDiarmid Park before being spirited away to Burnley and more recently Bolton.
And few would bet against Coyle's successor McInnes following a similar path if the Saints keep marching on.
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