Rangers flashpoints: Callum Davidson has say on incidents against St Johnstone and team's performance

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson had no complaints with the award of penalty for Rangers, nor the decision to only book their goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin for a late tackle on Michael O’Halloran as the Ibrox side prevailed 2-1 in Perth.

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson.

The cinch Premiership champions battled back from 1-0 down to defeat the Saints 2-1. Michael O’Halloran put the hosts ahead, but Rangers responded via a Kemar Roofe penalty when Hayden Muller brought down Ryan Kent before a James Tavernier strike settled the match on 79 minutes.

There were other flashpoints in the match, when McLaughlin scythed down O’Halloran ten minutes into the match, and wen a melee ensued after Roofe’s penalty which resulted in four players being booked.

Davidson, however, had no qualms with the decisions made by referee Willie Collum and lamented a lack of game-management once his team went ahead.

“I thought with all the changes we had to make with injuries – we had a very young back five – we performed really well for 85 minutes,” said Davidson.

“We had a wee bit of madness after we scored. I am really pleased apart from that.

“Once we scored, though, we allowed Rangers pressure and made too many mistakes.

“We gave them the opportunity to get back in the game and at that point we should have shown a bit of experience and seen the game out.”

On the incidents, Davidson said: “Ach, a melee is a melee. It was one of those, I was involved in a few myself ! You just walk away.

“I didn’t really see any bookings in that. For the penalty, as good as Hayden was today he has gone to ground in the box.

“We had three or four bodies around Kent at that point so stay on your feet and if Kent sticks the ball in the net you go, okay.

“That is probably the disappointing thing.”

And on the yellow card for McLaughlin, Davidson added: “I would have been disappointed if Zander [Clark, his goalkeeper] got sent off for that as well. I thought the ball was slightly away from goal so he wasn’t last man. Take it and move on.”

A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.