Davidson: Saints missed McDiarmid support

CALLUM DAVIDSON admits St Johnstone missed the backing of the McDiarmid Park crowd as they exited the Scottish Cup at the hands of Rangers.

Borna Barisic netted the only goal of the game to send Michael Beale’s side through to the last 16 at the end of a low- key encounter.

Rangers were cheered on by more than 7,000 supporters after the Saints board made the controversial call to cash in and hand over three sides of the stadium.

Thousands of Perth punters boycotted the match in protest at the decision and Davidson reckons that made a difference in the closing stages on Saturday night.

Davidson said: “The last two home performances haven’t been good enough for me and I thought we got back to what we do best tonight.

“We lost the goal at a difficult time. James [ Brown] has just come off and within 60 seconds we concede in the 44th minute.

“I said to the players at half time to keep doing it. Keep working hard and we will get chances against a very good team who actually controlled the ball really well on the surface. I thought my players did that and they gave me everything today.

“I hope the supporters who were here appreciated it. And the supporters watching at home too. I understand fully why they are not here but I think the performance and energy levels were what I expect from a St Johnstone team.

“We missed the fans, definitely, especially last 10- 15 minutes when we are trying to put a bit of pressure on, they always help. If they were in the far side they would definitely help us pin Rangers back and try to get that goal. With them not being there it was difficult and when the game finished it was pretty quiet. It was tough that they weren’t there but I fully understand why.”