Saints’ gaffer backs players to come good
Callum Davidson is adamant he could not find fault with his St Johnstone side, despite the disappointment of defeat at home to Ross County.
The Perth outfit have now suffered four losses from their last five outings, with Iain Vigurs’ free-kick sealing three points for the visitors.
But Davidson is adamant his side had been “excellent” and has urged them to stick to their philosophy in the face of a difficult run of results.
The Saints boss said: “It was frustrating. I thought in the first half we were excellent, the players performed to a really high level.
“To go in 1-0 down and to lose a goal like that is obviously hard to take.
“In the second half, when you give a team something to hang on to it is hard to break them down. Ross County did that well in the second half, but again we hit the bar and forced a great save from the keeper.
“For me, I would be really disappointed if we stopped doing what we are trying to do.
“We performed really well. I actually can’t fault any of the players.
“It is sometimes easier if there have been four or five poor performances and you come away getting beat 1-0. But today was quite a difficult one to take.”
Saints had two early penalty appeals turned down and Davidson was also left with question marks over the free-kick given against Scott Tanser before Vigurs’ winner.
He added: “I haven’t had a chance to look at them, but I think we will get some decisions coming our way pretty soon.
“I need to have a look at the lead-up to the goal as well, to see whether it was a free-kick or not. Again, it was shoulder to shoulder.”
The McDiarmid Park outfit enjoyed long spells of control and launched a series of balls into the box without creating a great deal.
However, Davidson believes there were seeds of encouragement in the display of striker Stevie May.
He continued: “For me, that was probably Stevie of old. I thought he worked extremely hard, his movement was really good. So I’m glad he’s back to full fitness.”