CALLUM DAVIDSON suffered relegation as a player with Blackburn Rovers back in the 1998/99 season and, to this day, he still pinpoints the experience as the worst of his career.
The 45-year-old is now just 90 minutes away from facing a similar drop with St Johnstone as a manager with Inverness the visitors to McDiarmid Park in the Scottish Premiership play-off tonight.
Saints led by two goals in the Highlands on Friday night before Billy Dodds’ team rallied and pulled the tie level thanks to a double from Reece McAlear.
It was a sucker punch for the Perth men, especially given their dominance in the first hour, but the tie is now alive and kicking with all to play for.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s match, Davidson was quizzed on whether relegation was the most forgettable event of his career.
He responded: “Probably yes, or injuries. They are the two. At Blackburn we had to beat Manchester United which was quite a hard task. It’s a tough league.
“But I always believe if you give it everything you’ve got, if you try your best, you can hold your head up high. We all play sport and none of us want to get relegated or get beaten at tennis or golf.
“As long as you do that (give your all) you can hold your head up high and carry on with your life.
“We know where we are and what we have to do. We played well for 70 minutes and even after losing the goals we weren’t as bad as I thought we were.
“You take stock and we need to play with the enthusiasm and energy we started with and if we can do that for 90 minutes, then I believe we will get the result.
“I sometimes think when you are struggling you can get too emotional with it all. I think you need to have a clear head and a clear picture of what you want to do.
“You have to go about it in the right way with that intensity in how you play. You can’t get too caught up in the game, in the occasion and what’s going to happen.
“You just have to focus on what’s in front of you and it’s 90 minutes of football against 11 other players. Go out and perform as best you can and if you do that then you’ve got a great chance of winning the game.”
A year ago yesterday, St Johnstone did the unimaginable by winning the Scottish Cup to secure a historic cup double.
What a difference a year makes, but Davidson feels his side can use the experience of last term to help them through tonight’s play-off.
He continued: “I think people saw how we played under pressure in Inverness on Friday night. That’s basically what I asked for. I thought we performed. We were there, we stood up, we were brilliant.
“Now we just have to repeat it with more of the same with a little bit of composure and belief.
“We believe we can win the tie. That’s the most important thing. It would be a harder task if we did not believe in ourselves. We were all disappointed not to win on Friday night but the reality is it was only a draw.
“We are not a goal down. We are going into this tie at home with everything to play for. There’s belief in this group.
“They’ve seen a couple of bad decisions go against us. There’s that little bit of: ‘I tell you what, we’ve had a few unfair decisions but let’s use it as a positive. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again’.”
The Saints team came through Friday night without any further injury worries and Davidson hopes to add a couple of attacking options to his squad.
He added: “Everyone is fine from Friday. I hope to get one or two back. Big Theo Bair trained so we might have a few additions to the squad.
“They are fine. Training was good. They were bubbly, lively. It was more of a recovery day today because the ties are so close together with a little bit of tactical stuff worked on as well.
“They were all in good spirits and desperate to win the game. That’s the biggest thing. They are really focused and hungry to win the tie.”
