In their second half collapse against Ross County, St Johnstone were a “shadow” of the team that had started to build Premiership momentum, according to manager Callum Davidson.
The Perth side had already seen Callum Hendry’s opening goal cancelled out by the league’s in-form forward, Regan Charles-Cook, before the break.
But the second 45 performance, and the two goals scored against them in that time, saw the return of worrying habits Davidson had hoped his Saints side had kicked.
“The second half disappoints me,” he said. “The way we lost the goals.
“The first half was good but then we were a shadow of what we have been recently.
“This was such a massive game.
“It wasn’t the pressure but we are fragile when we lose a goal and we didn’t respond at all.
“Performances have been good. A times we have had poor refereeing decisions but this was all down to the players.
“For me, it didn’t seem like the players were hungry enough.
“That’s maybe a bad accusation to label at them as they’ve been good.
“But we didn’t do enough – to stop their goals and create.
“I just want them to be positive. There are five games to the split and we need to start winning games and being positive.
“The fans were great but we didn’t give them anything to shout about and I need to apologise.”
Ross County moved seven points clear of St Johnstone at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table 🏴
The Staggies came from behind to win 3-1 👏 pic.twitter.com/aAy8pPzx7g
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) February 26, 2022
Saints now welcome Rangers to McDiarmid Park in midweek and, even though they remain just two points above Dundee and the pressure is intense, Davidson is determined that they will play with the shackles off.
“We will go again on Wednesday night, and we will be at it in a tough game but we need to show more.
“I’d rather go down being positive and getting beaten, rather than what we showed for the second half.
“The players were confident in the first half and carried out the game plan well.
“But the second half wasn’t good enough.
“We didn’t defend well, we didn’t track runs and we were 3-1 down.
“But what disappointed me most was how we reacted to that.
“You have to play forward, be positive and try to make things happen.
“Instead, we went safe and went into our shell.
“I was really disappointed we didn’t put County under more pressure because we should have.”
