'IN FOOTBALL IT'S VERY FINE MARGINS' BELIEVES DAVIDSON

Following Saturday’s goalless draw for Saints with Hamilton Accies at McDairmid Park, Murray Davidson gave his reflections on the team’s first point of the New Year.

“I thought it was a hard fought game, not a lot in it. Hamilton came and set up and I think that they will be delighted with a point. It’s hard on the surface to create things and break teams down, but we’re not too disappointed with the performance and we will go again”.

Towards the end of the match, Saints fans were calling for a penalty to be given to the home side after the ball seemed to hit Hamilton defender, Ziggy Gordon’s arm in the penalty area.

“I think it is John Sutton that heads it and it definitely hits Ziggy Gordon’s hand because I see it, his hand is out there. Whether the ref doesn’t see it or what but I was screaming at the time, I thought it was a penalty but obviously nothing came of it”.

The scoreless draw means that Saints have now failed to win a game or score a goal since their 3-2 win at Ross County on December 5th.

“It’s always annoying when you don’t score and don’t win games but at least we didn’t get beat today and we kept a clean sheet. We do feel that we are not too far away, there is not too much difference between now and when we were scoring all the goals and winning all the games. In football it’s very fine margins and we believe we are not too far away”.

The last two games at McDiarmid Park have been played after passing an early pitch inspection, and the turf (which has been heavily affected by extreme weather conditions in Perth) has not made it any easier for Saints.

“It’s extremely difficult, it’s the same for both teams so there are no excuses but it’s not easy to do things quickly and to go at a tempo. It is going to be like that and it is up to us to try and find a way, we might have to play a bit more direct”.

Murray was very impressed by young winger Craig Thomson who made his first start in a Saints shirt, having made his debut for the side in April 2014 against Dundee United.

“He’s extremely pacy, he has been knocking on the door for a wee while. He came on at Motherwell and did well, he has got all the attributes to be a massive player for us. The pitch isn’t great for him but even today you see what he brings; he can beat a man, he is so quick off the mark and today I feel he did really well”.

interview by Nick Drummond-Hay