St Johnstone boss fears star could miss final after Roofe lunge

Callum Davidson fears Murray Davidson could be set for fresh Hampden heartache after seeing the St Johnstone veteran limp off in the wake of Kemar Roofe’s shocking lunge.

Saints take on Livingston in the Betfred Cup final on February 28 but the Perth boss admits the club’s longest serving player is a major doubt after being injured in his side’s 1-0 defeat at Rangers.

Midfield star Davidson – who also missed the club’s 2014 Scottish Cup triumph through injury – screamed out in agony after Rangers frontman Roofe overstretched to catch a heavy touch, planting his studs into his rival’s leg.

The McDiarmid man tried to play on but eventually succumbed to the blow 10 minutes before half-time.

Referee David Munro decided Roofe’s challenge was only worthy of a yellow card and Saints boss Callum Davidson refused to hit out at the official despite admitting his namesake could now miss another showpiece clash.

“It’s one of those, I don’t think there was any malice in the challenge, but it doesn’t look great,” he said. “TV pictures will slow it down and make it look worse than it is.

“The only thing I know is that I have lost my player from the resulting challenge.

“Is he a doubt for the final? It’s not great.

“It’s a concern with the cup final coming up. I don’t know if he needs a scan, I will know more in the morning.

“It’s one of those, probably the decisions didn’t quite go for us today. Little things in the game that could have helped us out.”

Ianis Hagi fired Rangers’ winner seven minutes after half-time but Davidson admits it might have been a different story had Roofe walked.

He said: “When you come to Ibrox you need that little bit of luck and the decisions to go for you.

“All I can do is credit my players. They showed drive in the last 25 minutes of the game.”

The result saw Gers boss Steven Gerrard clock up his 100th win since taking charge at Ibrox.

He has made it to triple figures in the space of just 152 games but his number two Gary McAllister thinks Gerrard will not want to take all the praise after seeing the Light Blues move to within six wins of the title.

He said: “I think we are getting close to loads of records and the stats and the win percentage, I don’t need to tell you guys, is very high.

“It shows the level of job that Steven has produced here, but he will say and I will say and the players will say that it has been about everybody.

“It is not just about Steven and he won’t be taking the acclaim for that. It is a whole team effort and it is credit to everyone that has been on this journey.”

Gers wasted three golden chances to take the lead before the break but grabbed the winner as Hagi drove in from the right to bury a sublime 20-yard strike.

“I thought in periods of the game we played some good stuff and created good chances but we weren’t as clinical as we like to be,” added McAllister. “I think you can see the reasons why St Johnstone are on a good run and are in a cup final.

“They are very well drilled, their organisation is excellent and come the end of the game they threw some forwards at it to try and get a result.

“It was tough but I thought we edged it and it was a special goal to separate the two teams. I thought Ianis was excellent on the night and it was a nice goal.

“I thought the referee had a good view of the (Roofe) situation and knowing the type of player that he is, I think the referee saw it as a yellow. He miscontrolled it, tried to retrieve it and the referee has seen it as a yellow.”