No malice from Roofe, says Davidson

CALLUM DAVIDSON believes there wasn’t any “malice” in the challenge from Kemar Roofe that crocked midfielder Murray Davidson.

Roofe was shown a yellow card by referee David Munro for a strong tackle that saw him catch Davidson and ultimately force him off at Ibrox as St Johnstone suffered a 1-0 defeat.

Ianis Hagi netted the only goal of the game as a late rally from the Saints proved in vain and Davidson’s side couldn’t earn a share of the spoils.

The decision to keep Roofe on the park could have changed the game in St Johnstone’s favour and Davidson said: “It’s one of those, I don’t think there was any malice in the challenge, but it doesn’t look great.

“TV pictures will slow down and make it look worse than it is.

“The only thing I know is that I have lost my player from the resulting challenge. It’s not great.

“It’s a concern with the cup final coming up. I don’t know if he needs a scan, I will know more in the morning.

“It’s one of those, probably the decisions didn’t quite go for us today. Little things in the game that could have helped us out.

“When you come to Ibrox you need that little bit of luck and the decisions to go for you.

“All I can do is credit my players. They showed drive in the last 25 minutes of the game.

“In the first half I thought my boys worked really hard, Rangers had a couple of really good chances to score.

“It’s funny, you come Ibrox and sometimes your keeper is having to make save after save, but Zander didn’t have a save to make and that speaks volumes for the work-rate of my players.

“Once we went a goal down I thought the reaction was tremendous. The showed great character and we could have got something at the end.” it