Callum Davidson facing tough St Johnstone call as he reveals midfielder is '50-50' to be fit for final

St Johnstone midfielder Murray Davidson has a fifty-fifty chance of featuring in the Betfred Cup final, according to manager Callum Davidson.

St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson will give namesake Murray Davidson every chance to prove his fitness ahead of Sunday's Betfred Cup final

The 32-year-old suffered a setback in his recovery from a calf problem and will almost certainly not be able to start against Livingston at Hampden on Sunday.

There was better news for Davidson's midfield colleague David Wotherspoon, who will be fit to feature after overcoming a groin problem.

The Saints manager said: “David is fine, Murray is probably now fifty-fifty; he had a tiny bit of a setback on Monday.

"We'll need to see how he is on Friday. He’s close but we're just not sure how close he is so that's been the only downside to this week.

"We'll wait and see how he is. We knew we were going to have to push him hard for this Sunday and we’ll give him every chance to be available.”

Davidson will wait and see if his namesake is able to train on Saturday before making a call on the player’s involvement on Sunday.

He added: “I haven’t picked my team yet so I'll see how Murray is and then decide after that. Everyone else has come through a couple of hard days of training.”

The midfielder missed the Scottish Cup win in 2014 through injury but Davidson admitted he may have to make some hard decisions.

"It’s a really difficult one. I know Murray, I played with Murray, but sentimentality doesn't come into it at all.

"Murray just has to convince me he's 100 per cent right and we'll take it from there. Sentiment doesn't come into it; I have to pick a team that I think will win the game even if that might mean other players are annoyed at not playing.

"There’s just a couple of positions [I'm swithering over], there's been some good performances lately that put me under pressure in terms of team selection.

"Some of them have probably forced their way into the team for Sunday.”

St Johnstone are the only team to have beaten Livingston in West Lothian since David Martindale took the reins and Davidson believes the attitude of his players on the day was key and urged them for a repeat performance at the national stadium.

"Livingston have been unbelievable for the last couple of months; the performance levels have been high and they have a great work ethic.

“I know on Sunday they will bring the right attitude to the game, and they will fight, and they will battle.

"We’re at Hampden so it will be a slightly different game but there will be other factors that can help us win too.”

Davidson was thrilled with how his players performed in the second half of the semi-final win against Hibs and believes that performance could be key this weekend – but fears another slow start could be fatal against the Lions.

"Hopefully we don’t start as badly [on Sunday] but the way they performed at Hampden in the semi-final can give them confidence,” Davidson said.

"We didn’t start as well as we could but we got stronger and stronger so that's a huge confidence boost for me, and it should be for the players too, to have the belief that they can play at that level.”

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