St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson warns St Mirren game is no time for a ‘wee semi-breather’

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson is wary of a Perth high being followed by a Paisley humbling.

And, with St Mirren and Motherwell coming up in quick succession ahead of the World Cup break, this is no time for his players to take a “wee semi-breather”.

It’s three wins in a row for Saints in the Premiership.

Now, making it four will be a challenge of body and mind.

“The players worked so hard on Sunday,” said Davidson. “What an effort they put in to get the victory.

“You have to warn against both mental and physical comedown. There are players who put a fantastic shift in.

“Sometimes you go: ‘That was great, we can have a wee semi-breather’.

“But I look at the last game against St Mirren here, after they beat Celtic.

“We managed to beat them (3-0) so I think it’s really important we use that as a tool to make sure it doesn’t happen to us.

“St Mirren are a good team, hard to play against and it will be a different sort of game than against Rangers.

“After Sunday we said: ‘Enjoy the victory but then we focus on St Mirren, we’ve two huge games coming up’.”

Season-defining potential

Saints are already 10 points above bottom-of-the-table Dundee United.

Opening up that gap while they’re in good form has season-defining possibilities.

“If we can maximise our potential and get the points we want from the next two games, it will put us in a good position for the remainder of the season,” said Davidson.

“We’ve got players who are desperate to play and prove their point.

“It’s great for me to have that. I’ve got options if I want to use them.  

“This week isn’t about remembering what’s happened. It’s about focusing on what’s in front of us.

“Plus, we’ve got good momentum and we want to keep that going.

“Over the last eight games, really, there have been huge signs of improvement.

“We lost two on the plastic pitches by a goal, we should’ve got a draw against Celtic – and we won the rest.

“There’s a lot of positives to take, we’ve a lot of boys back fit and we have new players now used to the way we play and what we’re trying to do.”