STILL SUFFERING
Davidson praying his Saints can find their fighting spirit
HOW hard must you party to deserve a hangover that lingers almost a full year later?
The question sprang to mind watching last season’s historymaking double cup winners St Johnstone huff and puff their way to a defeat that all but consigned them to the relegation play-offs.
Callum Davidson’s team could of course win their remaining three games and hope either St Mirren or Aberdeen suffer a complete collapse of their eight-point leads.
That seems as likely as Dundee accumulating enough points to consign the Perth men to bottom spot in the Premiership.
On the evidence of the past 12 months you wouldn’t fancy Davidson’s men to beat Arbroath, Inverness or Partick Thistle in a two-legged shoot-out.
Although St Johnstone’s form had rallied to some extent, this was a wasted opportunity to cause panic in the minds of their relegation rivals.
‘The fight has been there but today it wasn’t and that’s the thing that has annoyed me most,’ said Davidson. ‘We have been good lately but today I felt we were miles off it.
‘Last year was different, we were playing higher up the league and now we’re at the bottom. Different pressures create different problems. It’s a different type of football because players don’t want to make mistakes, so it’s about trying to give them that belief.
‘It’s still in our hands to stay in the league. Is the fight there? Without a doubt.’
If St Mirren’s decision to bring Stephen Robinson back to the SPFL as manager had not immediately produced the desired uplift in fortunes, the Northern Irishman coaxed a victory from his players at just the right moment.
One win in the previous eight had represented a pretty ropey record under Jim Goodwin’s replacement but his players started this match with verve and vigour.
After 30 seconds they might have been ahead. Alex Greive’s impressive turn of pace carried him behind Liam Gordon and into the penalty area. His left-foot finish wasn’t bad but Zander Clark’s pre-match warm-up was clearly comprehensive as, with lightningquick reactions, he extended an arm to push the shot away.
Alex Gogic was asserting himself in the middle of the pitch, his aggression dovetailing nicely with Connor Ronan, who was behind most of what little football was being played.
And Gogic came close to a goal with a 25-yard shot from distance as St Mirren probed for the opener.
As chasers, it might have been St Johnstone you’d expect to attack the game with greater conviction but Davidson’s side have lost all the belief and momentum that carried them so far last season.
The sales of prize assets Jason Kerr and Ali McCann late in the summer transfer window continue to haunt the club.
If they are to survive, Callum Hendry will be due a large share of the credit.
Farmed out on loan to Aberdeen last January, Hendry missed last term’s Scottish Cup final and was sent out for another temporary stint at Kilmarnock in the first half of this campaign.
Recalled by Davidson near the close of the winter window, he has carried the fight for the Perth side by scoring an impressive seven goals, a return that would be impressive even at the other end of the table.
He came closest to opening the scoring for the home team after working the angle for a shot that dragged just wide of Jak Alnwick’s right-hand post, but by half-time this was a match seriously in need of a bolt of electricity.
Had the ball been fitted with a solar panel or wind turbine it might have been able to harness some power from the elements given the amount of time it spent in the air.
When it came, the opener arrived from one of those rare passages of play conducted through passing and movement. Gogic was the move’s driving force, making up enough territory to force a pass through to Greive in a dangerous area.
From the byline the young forward got his cutback spot on, angling the ball back behind the defenders to meet Greg Kiltie, who applied a first-time shot into the corner of the net.
Callum Davidson threw the contents of his substitutes’ bench at the situation, with Glenn Middleton and Cammy MacPherson first to arrive on the scene, but they were as ineffectual as later arrivals Stevie May and Theo Bair.
And so, in stoppage-time, it was left to goalkeeper Clark to sprint forward in hope of nicking an unlikely equaliser.
The ploy worked a treat in last season’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers but the magic of those heady days has long been replaced by the sickly sensation of a team in steep decline.