St Johnstone's Max Kucheriavyi concerned for family in Ukraine

St Johnstone are giving support to their Ukrainian teenager Max Kucheriavyi amid the invasion of his homeland by Russia.

Boss Callum Davidson and others at the Perth club have spoken to the “concerned” 19-year-old midfielder, who is on loan at Kelty Hearts.

Davidson said: “I spoke to Max and the staff spoke to Max and he is obviously a bit concerned with his family just outside Kyiv, so it is worrying times.

“It puts things into a different perspective when you see things like that, what’s going on over there, which is not acceptable.

“Our thoughts are with Max and his family and hopefully they are safe.

“He has been in touch with his family, he says they are fine but he is quite concerned at the moment as we probably all are, with the situation escalating.”

Davidson has been preparing his side for the trip to fellow strugglers Ross County on Saturday.

St Johnstone are two points ahead of bottom side Dundee, who have a game in hand, and four behind the Staggies.

The Perth men have lost only one of their last five games and are on the back of a morale-boosting 2-1 home win over Hearts and Davidson sees the Dingwall game as a chance to go within a point of County, who won 2-1 at McDiarmid Park in December.

He said: “This is what we said when we came back from the winter break, can we keep getting those points, can we keep putting pressure on the teams above us?

“Our performances have been good, I would have liked to get a couple of more wins but it is a really important game tomorrow.

“Can we make teams above us look behind and that is what we are trying to do.

“There is a lot of confidence going through the players at the moment, it will definitely be a different St Johnstone that faced Ross County here in December.

“We will go in a positive frame of mind. It is going to be a hard game, we know Ross County can score goals so we need to make sure we are at our best.

“I am looking for a 90-minute performance on Saturday. I think we have had a lot of 45s and 60s but tomorrow I am expecting 90 minutes.”