My Saints needed to limp over line for point
Davidson hails his walking wounded for standing tall
Callum Davidson thanked his walking wounded for banking a point from a hard-fought clash in Perth.
It was a second successive home clean sheet for St Johnstone despite a clutch of fitness issues plaguing preparations.
But there is concern over Graham Carey, who injured a knee in training and missed the stalemate, while Jamie Murphy and Ryan McGowan both soldiered on until midway through the second half.
It was a day for taking a point then moving on without doing much more damage and Davidson had his wily, experienced defence to be grateful to as they managed to keep County’s new young boys at bay.
The McDiarmid Park manager said: “We were good and worked it in good areas in the first half. We passed the ball quite well. The game plan worked.
“We had two or three boys playing who hadn’t trained all week.
“Jamie was struggling with an injury, Ryan was struggling as well but managed to train on Friday.
“I got good minutes out of them and we got a good spark from the ones who came on.”
Saints have fingers crossed for a good news bulletin soon on Carey, scorer of three goals in the first two months of the campaign. Davidson revealed: “He hurt his knee at training. I don’t know how long he’ll be out for. It will be a matter of getting the swelling down and hopefully he’ll be okay.
“As a defensive unit, we were solid. There have been a lot of positives in the last two home games. We have fixtures coming up where we can get points. We’ll get everyone fit and healthy and have a really strong squad to pick from.”
Liam Gordon returned from his own injury to make a first start of the season and take over as skipper again.
The lively opening eight minutes gave false hope of an entertaining contest as both sides were denied a goal by the woodwork.
Drey Wright found Stevie May in space on the edge of the penalty box with a clever cutback. The striker’s right foot halfvolley looped over Ross Laidlaw but came back off the far post.
William Akio, goal hero at home to Aberdeen last time out, impressed early on his first start. He set up Kazeem Olaigbe after darting in from the right f lank. Olaigbe’s shot crashed off the underside of the bar and then bounce on the line favoured the home side.
Olaigbe dragged a second chance wide on 19 minutes as County’s wide boys threatened a big day.
Laidlaw blocked on the line from Andy Considine then reacted to deny Nicky Clark on the rebound.
Mackay made a triple change on 65 minutes in the first of his bold moves to press for three points. Owura Edwards was a troublesome set of fresh legs for the home defen defenders.
But they could coul only muster a 22-yard drive from Dav David Cancola as a serious danger to Remi Rem Matthews’ goal.
Ali Crawford, who replaced Murphy, was presented with the best chance with two minutes to play but his snapshot flashed wide.