The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
We shot ourselves in foot: Davidson
St Johnstone shot themselves in the foot at Tynecastle, according to Perth boss Callum Davidson. The Mcdiarmid Park manager was happy that his team emerged from the midseason break to put on a good performance in the first half against Hearts.
But he was left to curse the return of bad habits with selfinflicted goals that saw Saints go down to their ninth defeat on the bounce.
“The first half was even,” said Davidson, pictured.
“There were good signs there.
“We worked really hard on our shape, our discipline and our transition.
“I thought we did that really well.
“We grew into the game and got better. You go in at halftime and basically say to the players: ‘Go and do that again’.
“Then we’re 30 yards into their half and five seconds later we’re 1-0 down.
“It was really disappointing. “And the second goal was the same.
“We were attacking and five seconds later we’ve been done on the counter again.
“It’s hard to take.
“The players put a lot into the game but we can’t concede goals like that – especially with the position we’re in – at a place like Tynecastle.
“The two goals were far too easy.”
Davidson gave debuts to new recruits Nadir Ciftci and Dan Cleary.
And both made a good first impression.
“Nadir was excellent tonight,” he said. “He showed that little spark and his movement was excellent. “I thought Dan did well as well.
“It was his first game in six to eight weeks. “Hopefully we can add a few more faces before the end of the window. “We’re working hard. It’s important that we do it. “You can see the lift that Nadir and the other lads have given the squad. “We need to keep fighting.” Liam Craig has been linked with a move back to Falkirk but Davidson poured cold water on that.
“At the moment we’re in no position to let players go,” he said. “We’re all about keeping players.”
Saints face Kelty Hearts in the Scottish Cup on Saturday and will then have a chance to get off the bottom of the Premiership when Dundee visit Mcdiarmid Park.
“All the games are huge,” said Davidson. “It doesn’t matter what team we’re playing.
“The cup game we’ve got next is huge. It’s really important we try and do the right things and then we can worry about the Dundee game.”
They staggered into the new year like a punch-weary boxer fumbling for his stool at the corner of the ring, gum-shield hanging out of the mouth and footballing senses dulled.
But before there is any prospect of St Johnstone landing some heavy blows of their own, there was more punishment to absorb at Tynecastle.
Eight defeats in a row has become nine.
The good news is that for one half Saints looked like a decent team in the making.
The bad news is in the other half they lost their way and conceded the sort of self-inflicted goals that have dragged them to the bottom of the table.
Three signings have been made but more are needed.
The big transfer window talking point in Gorgie has been John Souttar’s decision to sign a precontract agreement with Rangers.
When his name was announced before kick-off it was met with more than just a few boos.
And it was the same with every touch of the ball the former Dundee United centre-back made.
That would not have helped his confidence and neither would an early clearance he hit straight at Nadir Ciftci.
It presented a chance for Callum Booth to get a cross into the box, which was met by Stevie May.
Unfortunately for Saints the striker did not make a clean enough connection to test Craig Gordon.
The majority of the play was at the other end of the pitch in the opening stages.
On 10 minutes Michael Smith sliced a volley wide of the target and then referee Nick Walsh turned down a Hearts penalty appeal when Liam Gordon made a sliding tackle to deny Josh Ginnelly.
Midway through the first half Zander Clark was called upon to make his first real save when the Scotland squad man tipped a low Barrie Mckay 20-yarder round the post.
This wasn’t one-way traffic, however. Ciftci had the best chance of the match midway through the half when, with the Hearts defenders appealing for offside, he was through one v one on Gordon.
If the Turk has been following Scottish football over the last couple of years he will have known that it takes a very good shot to beat the country’s number one keeper.
His wasn’t that shot and a golden opportunity had gone.
Mind you, it should not take away from the fact that Ciftci was making an impressive debut.
Ten minutes or so later he was forcing another save out of Gordon, this time from distance.
There was also a Murray Davidson shot blocked – possibly by a Hearts arm – shortly before the break.
All in all, it was a job well done for 45 minutes.
But the platform Saints had built came crashing down within 20 seconds of the restart.
All it took was one Mckay pass to open up the left side of the Saints defence and Ginnelly stroked the ball past Clark to put the hosts in the lead.
It would have been an infuriating goal to concede at any time, in any game, let alone when you were reasonably comfortable at a tough venue and just out of the changing room.
And on 75 minutes it was game over.
Ciftci lost possession in midfield and within the blink of an eye the ball had been switched from left to right for Ginnelly to score his second of the night.
Clark produced a fine save to keep a Cammy Devlin shot out on 82 minutes but 2-0 it finished.
There’s a Scottish Cup tie to be played first but already Saints’ clash with second bottom Dundee is shaping up to be seasondefining. They simply can’t afford to let their losing run reach double digits.