Callum Davidson has appealed to swithering St Johnstone fans to reconsider boycotting Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with Rangers.
The Saints manager says he would ‘half beg’ angry supporters to turn out and back his struggling side for a fourth round encounter at McDiarmid Park this weekend. Scores of punters are set to stay away following the club’s decision to hand three stands to visiting fans whilst also charging £30 for adult tickets.
Chairman Steve Brown issued a statement yesterday accepting ‘certain criticisms have merit’, but it is expected the club could post their lowest ever home attendance. Davidson, whose team have lost their last five Premiership matches, says he understands the frustration, but maintained his players need the support.
“I sat down with the chairman for two or three hours on Monday afternoon,” he said. “We talked about the football side and off-the-pitch stuff as well.
“It’s one of those things, he’s pretty flat about the situation. In hindsight different decisions and better decisions could have been made.
“I understand the frustration and anger from the supporters. I’m a little bit frustrated myself. I wanted both stands there for our supporters because I know how big the game is.
READ MORE: St Johnstone release statement after fan 'hostility' over Rangers tie
“I think the chairman understands the situation with the statement he’s released. He understands the situation but going forward there’s not a lot we can do about it now.
“I just hope the supporters realise how big a game this is for us in our season. Hopefully if they’re swithering to come to the game or not, I kind of half beg them to put it to one side and come and support the lads.
“They were brilliant last season when we were in trouble and we’re going through a wee sticky patch just now. The more they can get behind the team the better – I don’t think they realise how beneficial it is.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel