ST JOHNSTONE manager Callum Davidson is considering appealing against the red card that Andrew Considine received in his side’s 4-1 defeat to Celtic at McDiarmid Park today.

Considine, who had put the visitors in front when he turned a Kyogo Furuhashi pass into his own net in the first-half, was sent off by referee David Dickinson in injury-time in Perth for a pull on Oh Hyeon-gyu.

Davidson was unsure if the centre half deserved the punishment – which will rule the player out of the cinch Premiership match against Dundee United at Tannadice on Saturday week if it stands - and will look at the incident again.

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"Celtic can sometimes cone here and open you up, but they had three chances and scored three,” he said. "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.” 

Davidson added: “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.” 

Davidson’s men are just seven points off bottom spot – but the St Johnstone manager was pleased with how his team performed against the Premiership leaders at McDiarmid Park and is hopeful the Perth club can avoid relegation.

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“I still take a lot of positives,” he said. “Against a very good team I thought we did well. When you try to press them high, they can open you up. But I thought we got the balance okay, especially in the second-half. 

"In the second half we have a couple of great chances but against Celtic you are not going to dominate the ball or force the issue. I was pretty proud of my players and how they went about their business.

“A couple of goals could have been better. I thought the last goal could have been offside, but he was quite eager to book my players and send them off, so I knew I wasn't going to get that decision.”

“My first thought is safely first. I think we’ve got eight games to get as many points as we can before the split. We don’t have the Old Firm so every game is winnable alright. That said, they are all lose-able too. 

“What we’ve shown in the last four games, the two Rangers games, Motherwell and today is there’s a lot to be positive about. 

“There are a lot of players staring to hit a bit of form who are like new players – Cammy MacPherson, Dan Phillips – these kind of guys who haven’t really been involved. So I’m really a pleased about that.”