Callum Davidson has had a tough start to life as St Johnstone manager – but he’s not the one to blame according to Murray Davidson.
The experienced midfielder made his first start of 2020 at the weekend as the Saints lost 2-0 to Livingston. Two goals inside two minutes from Scott Tiffoney and Alan Forrest had the McDiarmid Park club facing defeat again.
It dropped them into 11th, with just four goals scored in nine games this season. Whilst pressure is slowly creeping up on the rookie manager, his experienced midfielder says some of the blame must be pinned on the players as he opens up on his return to 90 minutes of football.
“It’s nothing to do with the manager, he has been brilliant since he came in,” said Davidson. “If we give away goals like we have done as a team then we are not going to win games.
“We could have Sir Alex Ferguson as a manager. The manager can’t put the ball in the net for us and he can’t defend the 18-yard box for us. The manager has just said to us we have to roll our sleeves up because the only way we are going to get out of this and get that first goal is being more ugly.
“Any successful team does the ugly stuff well and we have to get back to that. I’ve been building up for the last couple of weeks to get back, but I am obviously very disappointed with the result.
“When you lose a goal you’ve got to try and stay in the game and for 10-15 minutes from the 30th minute to half-time. As a team we weren’t good enough.
“We went in with a mountain to climb, even with us having the best chances in the first half.”