St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson was disappointed that individual errors cost his side against Celtic at Parkhead yesterday – and thinks referee Nick Walsh was too quick to award a penalty against his side.
The Parkhead side ran out 2-0 winners in the end but Davidson thinks his side could have come away with something after pushing Celtic close in the opening 45.
A mistake by Callum Booth allowed Anthony Ralston to tee up Giorgos Giakoumakis for Celtic’s opening goal, before the penalty decision that let Josip Juranovic double their advantage – and Davidson was left bemoaning the errors that ended up costing his side a chance at a point.
“The first half we had a game plan,” Davidson said.
“I watched Celtic a lot and they have really attacking players and they play with a lot of energy and get the ball in the box quickly. Apart from one mistake in the first half I thought we did really well, I don’t remember Zander’s goal being peppered and making save after save, so [we were] pretty disappointed to go down 1-0.
“He just misjudged it. It is unlike Callum. It was a long-range shot that we can deal with and if we deal with that then we don’t concede. Listen Callum didn’t mean to do it, I am not blaming Callum, we got punished for it.
“I don’t think Celtic had many chances in the first half but we got punished then the game becomes a little bit harder for us.
“The second half was like cat and mouse we tried to press a little bit higher. I thought we did that and then from our throw-in, we give away a really stupid ball and lose possession really easily.”
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