Celtic’s ruthless nature in front of goal at McDiarmid Park ensured today’s result was ‘hard to take’ for Callum Davidson and his St Johnstone players, the manager shared post-match.
Ange Postecoglou’s Bhoys sliced open the Perth side on three occasions in the first half before adding a fourth goal through David Turnbull in the closing moment of the match.
Davidson was left frustrated with the 90 minutes and even revealed after the match he could end up appealing Andrew Considine’s late red card.
As quoted by The Herald, the St Johnstone boss said: “Celtic can sometimes come here and open you up, but they had three chances and scored three. It was a wee bit hard to take for the players but they didn’t put their heads down. We got a great goal from Drey (Wright). In the second half I said: ‘Can we stay in the game? Can we ask questions?’ I thought we did that.
“Then there was a goal at the end and Andy’s sending off. That annoyed me a little bit not just because of the game but because of next week where we will miss Andy. As a player you don’t think like that, but as a manager you think of bigger pictures.
“I haven’t really seen the red card back. He’s pulled his jersey, but I don’t know who’s coming in covering. I was a wee bit disappointed in that. I think you can (appeal it) but I’d need to look at it. I haven’t looked at it properly. At the moment – and I’ve not seen it – it did look like he did pull his jersey, but there’s players round about him.”
He added, to Football Scotland: “I maybe thought the last goal could have been offside. But he was quite eager to book my players and send my players off so I knew I wasn’t going to get that decision.”
St Johnstone successfully appealed a red card shown to Nicky Clark at Ibrox last week but it’s unlikely Considine will be offered the same reprieve, even if Davidson does go through with that appeal action.
It also seems silly to complain about yellow cards given his players were booked in the 78th and 89th minute – that hardly had any impact on the result. Both of Celtic’s bookings came before that.
Celtic were well worth the three points, even without Considine’s rugby tackle red.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou’s hairdryer treatment to Celtic stars.
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