St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson concedes major Perth turnaround needed to be left standing

As all else has deserted his failing, rooted-to-the-botton-of-the-table St Johnstone side, Callum Davidson’s humour has not.

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson has told some of his players that they "need to take a look at themselves" following the 3-1 defeat by Celtic that extends the losing sequence of the cinch Premiership's bottom club to eight games. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

Last season’s anointed, historic cup double-winning Perth manager was left frustrated across his team’s 3-1 defeat by Celtic by the defending of players he knows must seek answers from within their own pysches as the club’s losing sequence now runs to eight straight games. With the winter shut-down to repurpose his squad, Davidson was asked if he believed that the McDiarmid Park side would get better to haul themselves away from relegation trouble.

“I hope so or I won’t be standing here talking to you!” he said ruefully. “Listen, I definitely believe so. With the addition of a few quality players – seven or eight starters were missing today – a bit more luck, and more quality, I firmly believe we’ll start playing a lot better. The basics is the biggest thing. We did that really well last season and had fantastic success. The players have to be better at it or they won’t play. Simple.

“It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks. I said to the players in there that ‘some of you need to go and have a look at yourselves’. We have to find a way of bringing in some players with quality to, with players who we have here, start getting us out of this mess. [Against Celtic] we gave away a goal easily in the first 10 minutes after giving them possession and that was us chasing. All three goals we made it far too easy for them.”

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