Callum Davidson frustrated as St Johnstone fail to score against Dundee United

Posted Sunday, October 25, 2020 by PA

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson was disappointed his side were unable to claim all three points after being held to a goalless draw by Dundee United.

The Perth outfit carved out all the best opportunities and dominated for the majority of the match but could not break down their visitors.

United keeper Benjamin Siegrist saved from David Wotherspoon and Murray Davidson late on as Saints chased victory, but – after scoring 12 goals in their previous two games – they had to make do with a point.

Davidson said: “After 10 minutes we settled down and played really well. We created good opportunities.

“The pleasing thing for me was how we dealt with their front three. It’s a potent front three with a lot of experience and a lot of goals between them, but we limited them to no shots on target. So that side I was really pleased with.

“On the attacking side, we dominated the game for 80 minutes. A few times this season I’ve been standing here and we’ve lost the game 1-0, and I’m really frustrated for the lads we didn’t take the three points.”

Siegrist’s block on Murray Davidson’s 90th-minute header denied the McDiarmid Park side a late winner.

The Saints manager said: “I thought he produced two or three top-class saves. The header at the end and he pulled off a great save from a shot as well. He kept them in the game.

“On another day we might have scored two or three and won the game comfortably.”

United counterpart Micky Mellon was full of praise for his side’s defensive efforts but he admits they have work to do going forward, despite fielding Lawrence Shankland, Marc McNulty and Nicky Clark in a three-pronged attack.

Mellon said: “We’ve worked very hard on the defensive side of things and up to this point the hard work has come to fruition.

“What we want to get better at is when we come out of that defending and when we have the ball ourselves. We need to get better at that first pass or finding the runs of the front three or they have to retain it better.

“But in order to do that you have to get the platform right and the platform comes from defending properly and getting those clean sheets.

“We defended really well throughout the game, we defended our 18-yard box superbly well and we defended as a unit really well.

“We looked really solid. I would just have liked us to be a bit better when we came out of ‘solid’.”