St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has injury problems to contend with as he looks ahead to a Betfred Cup sem-final.
The Buddies suffered a 1-0 Premiership defeat to St Johnstone but despite that setback Goodwin must quickly turn his focus to facing in-form Livingston.
While Callum Davidson can reflect on St Johnstone’s win, Goodwin could be without midfielder Jake Doyle-Hayes for several weeks while German centre forward Collin Quaner’s debut from the bench was curtailed minutes from the end against St Johnstone when he limped out of the fray.
Goodwin was angered by two refereeing decisions that went against the Buddies at key moments in the contest but he had little time to dwell ahead of his side’s cup commitments.
“The referee’s decisions were really costly but we didn’t play as well as we would have liked,” said Goodwin.
“It looks like a little bit of medial (ligament) damage with Collin but I don’t think it is anything too severe. But we do have a concern over Jake. It looks as if he has pulled a muscle in his thigh.
“That could be a four to six weeks job, which is a real blow because he has been a big player for us. But we aren’t going to be too downhearted.
“We lost to a good side. But you rely on referees to get the big decisions right and unfortunately that hasn’t happened.
“We have a big week now to prepare for what is a huge game for the club, a semi-final with Livingston at Hampden on Sunday.”
Goodwin was aggrieved at the red card shown to midfielder Cammy MacPherson in the 55th minute for a second foul on Israeli striker Guy Melamed.
And he maintained referee Steven McLean missed an arm used by Melamed before Chris Kane’s initial strike which keeper Jak Alnwick parried back into the centre forward’s path to score shortly after the break.
Matchwinner Kane, who scored his sixth goal of the season, had a chance to make the run-in smoother but Alnwick tipped his shot over the target.
“We won’t allow ourselves to feel sorry for ourselves. Hopefully we can give a better account of ourselves on Sunday,” added Goodwin.
St Johnstone boss Davidson, whose side face Hibernian on Saturday, admitted the display against St Mirren had not been pretty but he welcomed a three-point haul for the first time since early November.
“It’s probably the worst we have played,” admitted Davidson.
“But we defended really well and never allowed St Mirren to get into our box. That was the pleasing aspect.”
