ST JOHNSTONE'S success in appointing their last three managers should mean it will not be just their fans and the media watching with interest when the time comes to reveal Steve Lomas' successor.

Lomas was last night confirmed as Millwall's new manager, a move that will kick off the search for St Johnstone's fourth permanent manager in the past five and a half years.

The Perth club have made a virtue of ignoring established, veteran coaches to place their faith in younger, more callow figures, appointing in succession Owen Coyle, then Derek McInnes, then Lomas.

If there is a risk in plumping for managers with little or no real experience, it has paid off handsomely. Each has been such a success that they have been courted, then signed up, by bigger clubs in the English Championship. It will hardly be a surprise if that track record leads to other clubs going down the same road when it comes to pursuing their next manager.

St Johnstone, of course, have not embarked on this strategy simply because they want to be different from the rest. Experienced managers tend to demand higher salaries and expect bigger budgets with which to build a winning team. Young, eager aspirants – Coyle was 38 when he took the reins at McDiarmid Park, McInnes 36 and Lomas 37 – are often so grateful for the opportunity that they bring lesser demands to the table, and at a cost-conscious club such as St Johnstone such prudence is always welcome. There is also a dynamism about younger managers, something that Steve Brown, the St Johnstone chairman, spotted right away when he interviewed Lomas for the job in the autumn of 2011. "His enthusiasm in the interviews was incredible, at times it was overwhelming," he said.

St Johnstone won promotion to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League in 2009 and have not taken a backwards step since. They finished eighth in their first two seasons back in the top division, before Lomas led them to sixth last year, and third in the season just finished. Such progress rarely goes unnoticed by clubs, including Millwall, who wonder if this young, developing manager could replicate that success with a different group of players. Rivals soon become aware of it, too. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland As and key player in the Moneyball baseball phenomenon, soon discovered that it was harder to do something different from the pack as his every move was being so closely scrutinised, then copied. St Johnstone may find something similar happens to them.

Tommy Wright, Lomas' assistant, has been spoken of as his potential successor, although someone such as Paul Hartley would seem to be a better fit for the mould. Still only 36 years old, Hartley has led Alloa Athletic to back-to-back promotions and is a former St Johnstone player to boot. Others such as Allan Johnston and Paul Sheerin – both championship-winning managers under the age of 40 – could also come into consideration. The strategy is not foolproof, of course, and the next manager may not flourish in the same vein as his predecessors, but for the time being it is hard to see the St Johnstone board deviating from their current course.

"They are a club willing to give young managers opportunities and it's a formula that's definitely worked for them," said Sandy Stewart, Coyle's long-time assistant and caretaker manager when St Johnstone won the Challenge Cup in 2007. "They took a chance with Owen as at that time he was my assistant at Airdrie. Geoff Brown was the St Johnstone chairman and he just liked what he heard from Owen, his enthusiasm and all the rest of it. I ended up following Owen to become his assistant and it went well. We got good results, reaching cup semi-finals and the like, before Owen and then I moved to Burnley.

"Derek was a player then but the chairman obviously was impressed with what he heard in the interview and again decided to give him a shot. He did well, taking them up to the SPL, before heading for Bristol City, and then they went for Steve, who has also been a great appointment. I think St Johnstone just feel there are young managers out there more than capable of doing a good job and are willing to give them a chance. I know Geoff and his son Steve have said they would rather do that than go for the usual faces, and it's paid off for them.

"There's always a risk as you don't know how a young manager will handle the pressure but you can only really find that out by putting them in and seeing how it goes. But there are no guarantees of success if you go for an older manager either."

Those handed their chance have found in St Johnstone an efficient, ambitious club but one well aware of its limitations. "It's a very well-run club and it always has been," added Stewart. "They live within their means and have a tight player budget. More experienced managers would maybe like more money to work with but the younger ones don't tend to have such high demands. They don't like losing their managers but they won't stand in their way if a bigger club comes in. There's ambition at St Johnstone but they know that if a manager does well then he will look to move on. That, in turn, should help the club as well when it comes to attracting their next manager."