St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson has challenged his players to rediscover their defensive solidity against Celtic.
Saints frustrated Celtic for large periods at Hampden little over a month ago and only lost the Premier Sports Cup semi-final to a solitary James Forrest goal after a suspicion of handball against Jota when he brought down a sliced clearance.
Saints had gone to Hampden on the back of a three-match unbeaten run and two consecutive clean sheets.
However, they have now lost six cinch Premiership games on the trot and sit two points adrift at the bottom.
Scoring goals has been a problem – with forwards Chris Kane and Eetu Vertainen among four players self-isolating during Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat by Ross County.
However, it has been the defensive side of the game which has most frustrated Davidson.
Saints’ double cup success was built on their solidity at the back but they have now conceded twice in each of their last three matches and allowed County 20 efforts at goal.
Looking ahead to Celtic’s visit on Boxing Day, Davidson said: “We will try and get back to the way we were when we last played them.
“We are not a team that scores a lot of goals but we also didn’t concede many chances.
“That’s probably the biggest disappointment just now, conceding chances. We allowed Ross County far too many attempts on goal, they got into too many areas too easily.
“It’s something I need to look at, we need to figure out what to do.
“It’s a big game on Boxing Day, the last game before we go into a little bit of a lockdown. We need to play with a positive attitude and a positive mindset.
“We can’t allow too many chances against them. The two goals we conceded were really poor and something we can’t do.”
Having lost skipper Jason Kerr and Northern Ireland international Ali McCann in the final hours of the summer transfer window and with injured midfielders Cammy MacPherson and David Wotherspoon out as well as the isolating players, Davidson is in need of reinforcements.
“There’s a long way to go and the first couple of weeks in January are really big to see if we can bring in players to get better,” he said.
“Performance levels haven’t been good enough and I put myself in that as well.
“We have the Celtic game and hopefully we can get something positive for the fans and everyone to hold on to and then it’s going to be a really busy couple of weeks.”
