SAINTS CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURE – DAVIDSON

St Johnstone showed they can now deal with biggame pressure in securing their play-off place, according to Callum Davidson.

And the Perth boss believes the controlled performance that earned them a win over Aberdeen was a “big step forward”.

“Last night’s result put a lot of pressure on us,” said Davidson.

“Dundee winning by a couple of goals meant this was a game where we had to perform under pressure.

“I didn’t think we did that against St Mirren – under pressure we couldn’t do it - but I thought we did that tonight.

“That was a big step forward towards the play-off games, having that belief in each other that we can perform when we need to.”

It’s Hibs up next on Sunday but all thoughts can now turn to facing Arbroath or Inverness Caley Thistle over two legs.

“They’re two very good teams,” said Davidson.

“Arbroath have been phenomenal this season, especially at home. Inverness play really good football, they get it down and try and get in behind you.

“So it will be a tough game whoever we play against. We have a game on Sunday to take care of and it becomes a little bit irrelevant for us.

“We have a few knocks and niggles and a few boys near suspensions. So we’ll assess the squad on Friday and take it from there.

“We want to stay in the league. We’re desperate to stay in the league. I think you saw that tonight.”

Davidson, who revealed Stevie May was left out of his squad because of a tight hamstring, had Callum Hendry to thank for another crucial goal.

“Callum has been fantastic since he came back,” he said. “He needs to keep that going for another two or three games now.

“It was a great move for the goal - something we have worked on quite a lot and we are starting to get our rewards from it.”

Davidson added: “We had that wee lapse of concentration at Livingston that cost us three points but tonight we managed to see it out

“We still have 180 minutes of football to go, so if we can play like that and put whoever it is under pressure, we need to make sure we use that pressure and stay in this league.”