Former Hearts striker makes St Johnstone pledge ahead of first game in charge v Hibs

Davidson left the Perth club on Sunday following talks with chairman Steve Brown in the wake of a third consecutive defeat, which left them five points off the bottom of the cinch Scottish Premiership.MacLean, Davidson's first-team coach, has been installed as the boss “until further notice”.

The former Hearts striker told Saints TV: “On Sunday Callum gave me a call and told me he was no longer in charge. He basically said to me that the chairman was thinking about putting me in charge and it led to him giving me his blessing.

“Obviously it was a bit emotional, I was gutted. It's not the situation I wanted, I didn't want to be sitting here with that happening. I was really sad, it was a really sad day for everybody. I felt responsible as well because I was part of Callum's backroom team."

MacLean is looking for a reaction in Saturday's home game against Hibs. “I have got to put my own stamp on things,” he said. “Callum gave me his blessing and we spoke about it. I have got my own ideas, I am going to try a few things and hopefully we can get a reaction from the players. That's my job, to try and get a reaction from the players.

‘I spoke to the players on Monday and told them what I wanted and what's going to happen moving forward. I am looking forward to it, albeit in circumstances we didn't want, but I am going to give it a right go and I will work as hard as I can to make this team successful.”

MacLean, now 40, scored nine goals in 51 appearances over two seasons for Hearts at the tail end of his career. He was signed on a pre-contract from St Johnstone by Craig Levein in the summer of 2018 and played in the 2019 Scottish Cup final defeat at the hands of Celtic. He subsequently played a handful og games for Raith Rovers in League One before retiring as a player and returning to St Johnstone as a coach.