Relieved Saints boss grateful for keeper’s heroics
Callum Davidson hailed keeper Zander Clark for fantastic late saves but felt his Saints team deserved full points.
The Perth gaffer admitted to relief in the end, given his goalkeeper’s sharp reflexes and acrobatics.
But he left Dingwall nursing frustration at a failure to take second- half chances as Saints remained perilously close to the bottom spot.
Davidson stressed: “I thought after 20 minutes, we started to play.
“Our workrate in the first 10 minutes wasn’t good enough. We got better, got the goal and until virtually the last couple of minutes of the second half I thought we were the better team.
“We had good chances – I can’t fault them.
“Their application, in difficult conditions, was excellent for 60 to 70 minutes. It was soft and slidey and quite hard to lay football on but the lads did well.
“It’s always the case, when you don’t take your chances, the other team comes back at you. I’m thankful Zander pulled off a great save at the end.
“That’s the poorest we’ve started a game this season. We went a goal down but the reaction was great.
“In the second half we probably had the majority of chances, but we’ve got to take them and put the game to bed.
“We gave them an opportunity to try and get three points.
“From that perspective, I’m probably thankful for Zander to make sure of the point.”
The Saints manager was thrilled to be able to name full-back Scott Tanser as a substitute, albeit an unused one.
The St Johnstone manager added: “It’s great to have him back. It looked a bad injury, but the scan came back alright.
“I’d like to see him a full week in training and make sure he’s OK, but it’s great to have him back at a time when we need everyone we can on board and fit to play.
“Sometimes it is better just playing games when the training pitches aren’t great.
“The points return hasn’t been as good as we’d have liked so we have to be sure in January we apply ourselves.
“If we keep going the way we’re going, we’ll get the points we need.”