Davidson trusts his big-game hunters to avoid calamity
YESTERDAY marked a year to the day since a jubilant Callum Davidson was propelling himself shirtless through a river of lager in a Hampden dressing room.
A slide of another kind entirely, however, was on the double cupwinning St Johnstone manager’s mind 24 hours before his squad faces a very different final.
The Perth Saints are 90 fraught minutes away from tumbling down to the Championship, or securing Premiership safety, when they host Inverness Caledonian Thistle tonight at McDiarmid Park.
The hope for the most successful boss in the club’s history is that lifting the Scottish Cup and League Cup last season should help see off any nerves in his squad ahead of the conclusive play-off final second leg.
‘I think that big game experience can help,’ said Davidson, with the tie finely balanced at 2-2 from Friday’s first leg in the Highlands.
‘I think people saw how we played under pressure for most of the match in Inverness. We stood up, we were brilliant. Now we just have to repeat it with more of the same and a bit of composure.
‘We believe we can win the tie. That’s the most important thing.
‘It would be a harder task if we did not believe in ourselves. We were all disappointed not to win on Friday night but the reality is it was only a draw.
‘We are not a goal down. We are going into this tie at home with everything to play for. There’s belief in this group.’
St Johnstone were indeed impressive initially on Friday as goals from Shaun Rooney and Melker Hallberg had the visitors 2-0 ahead after 24 minutes.
But a double after the break from Reece McAlear ensured Billy Dodds’ side came back from the dead to have it all to play for this evening.
On Friday, Davidson was critical of referee Bobby Madden for not stopping play before McAlear’s first goal following a clash of heads between Jamie McCart and Billy Mckay. Rubbing salt into the wounds, Caley Thistle sub Austin Samuels, who set up the goal, was also two yards offside when he received the ball.
Davidson believes St Johnstone have suffered from poor refereeing decisions all season.
Urging his players to use it as fuel for the second leg, he gently cranked up the pressure on tonight’s match official Nick Walsh.
‘We know we are having to sometimes play against the refs,’ he claimed.
‘If it is one mistake then you can say: “Okay” but two blatant ones? It’s about consistency.
‘If I didn’t see the Scottish Cup final on Saturday, I probably wouldn’t be so mad.
‘But when I watched the Rangers game against Hearts and the boy Nathaniel Atkinson got a head knock when Rangers were attacking and the game was stopped, that made what happened on Friday worse.
‘You get frustrated on the sidelines but it was a head knock and I’m sure the rules say a head knock, especially with both players down, it should be stopped.
‘But the referee let the game go on and they scored and the boy was offside.
‘It does infuriate you as it can be the turning point. It hasn’t ruined the tie but it would have put us in a stronger position.
‘We can’t dwell on it but we can hope to get a couple of good decisions going for us in this game and it will even itself out.
‘The players have seen a couple of bad decisions go against us this season.
‘But you just have to take stock. What we need to do is play with the enthusiasm and energy we started with at Inverness. If we can do that for 90 minutes tonight then I believe we will get the result we need.’
As a player, Davidson’s worst moment was when Blackburn Rovers were relegated from the Premiership in 1999, four years after the club was crowned champions of England.
He hopes to pass on the lessons learned to his players to ensure they don’t go through a similar experience.
‘It was probably that relegation or injuries,’ he said. ‘They were the two low points of my playing career.
‘Sometimes when you are struggling you can get too emotional with it all.
‘I think you need to have a clear head and a clear picture of what you want to do.
‘You can’t get too caught up in the game, in the occasion and what’s going to happen.
‘You just have to focus on what’s in front of you — 90 minutes of football against 11 other players.
‘If you give everything you’ve got, and try your best, you can hold your head up high
‘If my players do that they’ve got a great chance of winning the game.’