The 34-year-old has had an injury hit season and did not feature regularly under previous boss Gordon Chisholm even when he regained full fitness.

With the January transfer window approaching, around Christmas, there was speculation he would be leaving the Tangerines and that has resurfaced again in recent weeks after he was left out of the starting line-up for the games at Dunfermline and Hibs.

He was, though restored, to the team for Saturday’s win and, although an injury to Grant Brebner made room for his inclusion, Craig has stressed his skipper was set to return anyway.

And the manager expects him to be involved regularly for the rest of this campaign and possibly beyond. “Derek McInnes is my kind of professional and on Saturday I thought he worked his socks off for the team. That’s the way he is in training every week, whether or not he is playing on a Saturday,” said Craig.

“I am always stressing to the young players that they have to make sure they are ready to play if and when I include them and seeing Derek go about his work every day is a good example for them to follow.”

At just a few months short of his 40th birthday, Craig himself plans to continue playing once he has recovered from a broken bone in his leg and sees no reason why McInnes, who is almost five years his junior, cannot be doing the same in the SPL next term.

“He is a very good pro, which is part of the reason why he has spent time at clubs like Rangers and West Brom. If you want something enough you work hard for it and reaching your mid-30s need not be a barrier to playing at a high level.

“I know there was talk of Derek leaving here before I arrived, but once I came in here the situation changed for everyone. I have been very happy with him and I see no reason why he can’t still be here next season.”

Paul Ritchie returned to full training today. He’s not featured under Craig Brewster because of a dead leg in the win over Falkirk the day before the new boss took over in January. However, if things go well he could feature for the reserves next week.

Also stepping up his work will be Charlie Mulgrew, who had a knee op. It’s unlikely either will be fit to return against Kilmarnock on Saturday week.

The combination of a 7-0 thrashing the stand-ins suffered at New Broomfield, and the need to make sure his players are ready for Hampden, means the strongest available side will be fielded against St Johnstone at Dens this Staurday and for the trip to Ross County a week later.

“I’ve got to keep players sharp, so I cannot really afford to leave people out of the next two games if they are fit and available,” said boss Alan Kernaghan.

“Barry Smith took a kick on Saturday, so we will have to check on him, but it will be the strongest available team for St Johnstone on Saturday and again at Ross County.”

While there were mitigating circumstances for defeat at the weekend, the size of the loss was still hurting the manager today.

“It was difficult because we had to make so many changes from our normal line-up, but we still should have done much better than we did,” added Alan.

Owen is also still upset that Saints had what he feels were “two perfectly good goals” chalked off and he also felt his side should have had a penalty when a home player handled in the penalty box.

“We went there to get three points and our performance merited three points,” Owen went on.

“But it was good to see Steven Milne getting 15 minutes as a substitute. He had knee surgery earlier in the season but trained last week. Kevin James, who was struggling with a hamstring injury last week, declared himself fit enough to play, but ended up coming off after tweaking his other hamstring.”

Saints legend Roddy Grant and comedian Bruce Fummey will be part of a pre-match show at McDiarmid Park organised by the Saints Business Club prior to Saturday’s match away to Dundee.

The event kicks off at noon and, following the show, the Business Club will travel to the game before returning to Perth for another function at the Queen’s Hotel.

Matt Glennon made history on Saturday when he became the first player in St Johnstone’s history to score in a competitive game while playing in goal.

He came up for a corner and netted Saints’ late leveller in their 2-2 away First Division divide against Ross County.

But he’s not the first Saints keeper to score.

John Balavage netted at Muirton Park against Hibs in the 1980s — but that was in a friendly. And, away back in 1914, Saints goalie Blackwood netted in a 7-0 demolition of Blairgowrie. But, with Saints 6-0 to the good at the interval, Blackwood came out of goal to play centre-forward in the second half — and netted Saints’ seventh.