Callum Davidson hails unsung St Johnstone heroes and will 'figure out plan for next season'
Geoff Brown is considered St Johnstone’s saviour through buying them when they were propping up the entire, then, three tier senior set-up in 1986. He passed the chairmanship to son Steve nine years ago – a period across which the McDiarmid Park club have now claimed three honours to become second only to Celtic for trophy successes. Amid the accolades rightly being showered on Davidson for his masterminding of the club becoming only the fourth to win both knock-out competitions in the same season, the 44-year-old acknowledged the part played by the Browns.
“It's difficult to describe my feelings just now. I don't think what we've achieved this season will sink in for a while,” Davidson said. “I hope the players and the people of Perth can enjoy it. And the Brown family as well, who have taken the club from around the bottom and built it up brick by brick.
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Hide Ad“They deserve the success for all the hard work they've put in behind the scenes. People don't realise that. They're massive St Johnstone supporters and they managed to get us here today so it's for all of them. It's a wonderful occasion. I don't know if Steve had a tear in his eye in the stand but if he did I'll give him a bit of stick for that... Maybe he's a big softie. People don't realise the commitment, time and effort they've put into the club. They've also got other jobs but they put so much into St Johnstone so it's great for them and the people of Perth to have a club competing for trophies.”
Davidson may be a novice manager but he cited his seven years in various assistant roles – first as No.2 to Tommy Wright in the team that presided over the 2014 Scottish Cup success – as being behind his instant, stupendous impact.
“My apprenticeship as a coach has paid off,” he said. “And I'll enjoy it because you can quickly turn into the best or worst manager ever. I've learned a lot in seven years and that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want to jump into management. I learned a lot from the experience with Tommy so it's a big thanks to him for bringing me in.”
Both cups and fifth place league finish make this season an impossible one to follow up for Davidson and his players, some of which are likely to be picked off by rivals. He isn’t in the mood to fret over that right now, though. “I think I should go to Portugal for 12 months on holiday – that's probably the best thing I could do… I don't know. I'll go home, get out on the golf course and figure out a plan for next season, in terms of what we want to achieve. Hopefully we'll get some good news on Europe – we might have an opportunity to get into a group stage. That would be huge for St Johnstone. But next season, we just have to stay in the league – then we'll take it from there...”