Charlie Christie – St Johnstone’s dream season now a nightmare
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It always amazes me how quickly a football manager’s stock can fall.
Turn the clock back just over eight months and St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson had the world at his feet after guiding St Johnstone to victory over Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park.
Not only had Callum defeated the odds yet again but he had added the Scottish Cup to the League Cup won earlier in the same season.
A quite astonishing feat for the Perth club and the relatively inexperienced manager!
Fast forward those eight months and Saints find themselves defeated in the Scottish Cup fourth round by League Two Kelty Hearts and in the midst of a relegation dogfight which has resulted in a section of the McDiarmid Park support calling for a managerial change.
Does this mean that Callum has suddenly become a poor manger?
I would very much doubt that and, in my opinion, it has far more to do with the fact that he is in charge of one of our provincial clubs that are always susceptible to a rapid downturn in fortunes given the resources they work with and the difficulty they have in attracting players whilst regularly losing their top performers to bigger clubs.
You only have to look at the change in fortunes at ICT from May 2015 to May 2017 after losing several of our best players alongside our manager to see how quickly things can slip.
Whilst their struggles in the league have surprised me, I always thought that the cup tie at Kelty was a real ‘banana skin’ given the experience in the ranks of the Fife side who are romping to the League Two title and the obvious lack of confidence currently in the Perth side.
Callum gave an honest assessment after the match and his team’s inability to turn possession into goals again came back to haunt them.
This will be a huge concern as they attempt to secure their topflight status and the scoring of just 11 goals in 22 league games to date speaks volumes about where their problems lie.
I hope the club give Callum time to turn things around, but patience is never in great abundance in modern day football and supporters can often have very short memories.
