St Johnstone: Callum Davidson suffers exit as fear of drop intensifies

In the middle of last week, Callum Davidson spoke about the plight of his St Johnstone team this season, sitting in ninth, compared with last season, when they finished 11th.

"We're in a much better position than we were 12 months ago," he said. The word "much" was pushing it somewhat. "If someone asked me would I rather be in that position or where we are now then I would take now all day long," he added.

Everything is relative. Now is better than last season, but last season was lousy and this season is threatening to be just as bad. Saturday's defeat by Livingston brought St Johnstone's winless run to six. They have lost the past three. They have scored one goal in five games.

• St Johnstone part company with manager Davidson

A lack of goals has been a regular theme over the years. In their double cup win in 2020-21, they scored nine goals at home in the entire league campaign and only 36 in total. But an absence of cutting edge at one end - they have not really had much since Stevie May in his pomp under Tommy Wright - was made up for by stout defending at the other end. They managed to compensate brilliantly, and historically. They do not have that capacity any longer.

Their leading scorers in the league are May and Drey Wright, both on six. May has scored twice this year, both in the same match. That's 13 out of 14 games, including a cup match, that he has not scored in. There are myriad reasons for that. Living off crumbs is the main one. Wright, meanwhile, has scored three times in 2023.

At the weekend their supporters booed them off for the second game in a row. "I can understand the fans' frustration because I'm probably even more annoyed watching that than they are," said Davidson in the aftermath of what would turn out to be his last match in charge.

There was something decidedly fatalistic about his comments. In suggesting that his players were not listening to him, he could not have made it more obvious that the end was nigh. Even a manager who gave the club their greatest ever season - a season so stratospherically brilliant that it will shine forever - can only talk his way through so many basic mistakes and so many soulless defeats before judgment day arrives, which it did on Sunday.

St Johnstone now in freefall

Some fans of the club wish that Davidson had left last summer, having survived the drop and with his head held high after the glory of the double cup win. They wanted him to depart to save him, and them, the torment of having to turn against him. Nobody wanted to go there. Nobody wanted it to end like this for a man who delivered two trophies in one immortal season.

St Johnstone are in freefall, though. Ross County, Kilmarnock and Dundee United are licking their lips at the sight of them coming back to the pack at the bottom of the league. It was loyalty to Davidson that kept him in the job so long. He cannot say that he was not given time.

Things have become too worrying now. Chairman Steve Brown is stepping down and the Brown family are in talks with an American consortium to take over. Would relegation, or even the threat of relegation, complicate or compromise negotiations?

Steven MacLean and Liam Craig are in charge in the interim. Arresting the decline and keeping Saints out of 12th or 11th is a serious task now, given Dundee United are gaining some traction under Jim Goodwin. Sunday was a sad but unavoidable day.

Saints have Hibernian at home in the final game before the Scottish Premiership split. Their home form has been wretched all season with just three wins - the lowest in the league - and 14 goals - again, the lowest - from 15 games. Post-split, they should have three games at McDiarmid Park, which might not be a good thing.

Davidson will go down in the annals of the club's history. The gathering fear of going down to the Championship is what's done for him.