FOOTBALL can be a cruel game at times and Murray Davidson knows all about it.
The midfielder was absent from St Johnstone’s Scottish Cup triumph in 2014 following knee surgery and this year he missed out on the Perth outfit’s League Cup heroics due to a calf knock.
Trophies do not come round all that often for St Johnstone and it would have been easy for Davidson to admit defeat and give up hope of playing in a national final.
But despite his obvious disappointment, the combative McDiarmid Park player has been determined to regain his fitness before the current season reached an end.
While Davidson has been working hard behind the scenes his teammates have miraculously guided themselves into a second semi-final of the season.
And once again, the 33-year-old is just two games away from righting the wrongs of the past.
Davidson made a cameo appearance against Hibs at Easter Road at the weekend and it was an important first step with a last four tie against St Mirren to come this Sunday.
“It felt really good to get back out there. It’s been a long time coming,” he explained. “We’ve taken our time because obviously there was the set-back the last time which ruled me out of the cup final.
“We didn’t want that to happen again. It’s been day by day, monitoring my workload and it was great to finally have something to look forward to waking up on a Saturday morning.
“I hate missing football games. There’s nothing worse than knowing you’re going to be sat in the stand.
“I’ve been itching to get back but for once I’ve been pretty sensible and saying to myself at times: ‘Just relax a wee bit’. Last week it was one day on, one day off. Then we upped it to two and one.
“The technology monitors everything these days, which has been a big benefit. Myself and the sports scientist Bod (Alex Headrick) have been looking at it every day and upping the sprints and distances.
“We’ve been checking my heart-rate percentages – everything basically. It’s been brilliant for me. Maybe as I get older I’m getting a wee bit more sensible!”
On the heartache of missing two finals in the past, Davidson continued: “I’ve been asked so many times about the Scottish Cup final I missed. That wasn’t too hard. Yes, it was sad to miss it but I’d been out for six months.
“Round by round I knew I wasn’t going to be part of it. I had myself mentally prepared that I wouldn’t be playing that final. But to play the semi-final against Hibs [this year], beat them so convincingly and then be ruled out of the final not long after was very hard.
“You can’t understand what it is like for a player to miss a final until it’s happened to you. Watching the game is so difficult and it’s the same after it.
“You’re happy for so many people – the players, the manager, the chairman, the fans – but there’s a part of you that says: ‘I missed that’. It’s the human side to it all.
“It was really difficult and there were a few days I struggled. I switched my phone off and told my mum and dad and the rest of my family not to speak to me. They left me alone.
“But I got over it and, looking back, I know there are far more important things going on in the world than me missing a cup final.
“I was more disappointed for my family. They were buzzing to see me win the semi-final. My wee girl (Summer), all of my friends, they were all so happy because I was going to get the chance to play in a cup final. I’m being 100% truthful here – I was more disappointed for them than myself.”
St Johnstone fans are dreaming of a historic cup double this season but Davidson insists the players are under no illusion of the task at hand.
He added: “There’s nothing better for a player than to have a semi-final to look forward to. We’ve already seen this season how special they are if you win one.
“In the week before cup final week I thought I was going to make it. The match was probably two or three days too soon but because I was so close we had to go for it.
“It was the last minute of what I was doing in training on the Wednesday that I knew it wasn’t going to happen and I remember the manager saying to me that we’ll just need to make sure we get to the Scottish Cup final.
“There’s only four teams left, the Scottish Cup is up for grabs and we’re one of the four who has a chance of winning the trophy. We know it’s going to be a tough game on Sunday but we’ve shown already this season that if we play well we’re a match for anyone.
“Now we’re one game away from it. That Betfred Cup final is gone and we’re all focused on getting to this one now. The whole place has got a buzz about it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here