CALLUM DAVIDSON was open to admitting that the past week was the toughest seven days of his time in football. 

Positive coronavirus tests in the Perth camp threw up all kinds of problems for the St Johnstone manager and with a Scottish Cup final on the horizon it was far from ideal timing. 

Davidson was given something to smile about yesterday though as his side qualified for European football for the sixth time over the past nine campaigns. 

It is always an astonishing achievement for a club of Saints’ size to finish in a Euro spot but considering the McDiarmid Park outfit won only four of their opening 23 Scottish Premiership games, the accomplishment is all the more impressive. 

Speaking after yesterday’s 0-0 draw with Livingston, Davidson said: “I’m thrilled for the players, let’s not talk about the game. I don’t think it was a great game at all, there were very few chances for either side. 

“From where we were to come through this and after the week we’ve had as well. The players put their bodies on the line, Liam Craig, Muzz [Murray Davidson], some haven’t trained at all. 

“The lads have hardly trained the last two weeks so to get that performance as in effort, attitude and desire to get the result we needed was fantastic. 

“It’s a phenomenal achievement to finish fifth and compete for trophies. I’d have taken that. It has been a phenomenal season whatever happens next week, I can’t ask any more of the players. 

“It’s a really small group and the way they’ve played their football other than today was in a really positive manner.” 

Murray Davidson produced a trademark midfield performance to guarantee the point Saints needed to land fifth spot ahead of Livi in the league. 

The 33-year-old missed out on St Johnstone’s League Cup triumph earlier this season and he also sat out the heroics of the Scottish Cup final back in 2014.  

His namesake and manager will now be doing everything in his power to ensure he is fit and available for selection at Hampden next weekend. 

Davidson continued: “I wasn’t planning on playing Murray for 90 minutes, it’s just the way the game panned out with players. It’s all credit to him. 

“He works extremely hard. You can see his sharpness wasn’t quite there that’s why we decided to play Liam, Stevie [May] and Murray because I think they needed that before the cup final. 

“There was an element of risk to play them in order to get the result. We will put him in full PPE gear, make sure he stays at home, comes to training and comes back again. 

“You think I’m joking but I’m probably not, I think we all have to do it now. I’m just hoping for good fortune with Covid at the club and hopefully we are doing everything we can to make sure no one has got it or passed it on. We are praying no one else gets it.” 

In a game of few chances, emergency loan signing, Bobby Zlamal, was the hero for Saints as he produced a fine save on 70 minutes to deny Livingston's Jaze Kabia.  

Davidson hailed the goalkeeper, saying: “All credit to Bobby for his character. He hadn’t trained for two weeks before the Celtic game. 

“He has helped us over the line, so a massive thanks to him. Hopefully, we will have him next week too. 

“We will see how Elliot [Parish] and Zander [Clark] are when they come back. We are looking at that just now, it might save me sleepless nights if I have him here as well so I’ll speak to the chairman and see if we can do something about it.” 

Asked if St Johnstone were through their coronavirus breakout, Davidson added: “There are issues we have to deal with, testing procedures because there were cases last week. Training has been pretty difficult. 

“It’s not great, not ideal preparation but you saw the character we have to try and get a result. Basically we are praying we get nothing else.”