Michael O’Halloran will have to “earn the trust” of Callum Davidson before he gets back in the St Johnstone team after a moment of madness led to his second sending-off of the season.
The forward was only on the pitch as a second half substitute against Rangers for five minutes when he picked up a pair of yellow cards in quick succession.
Davidson, whose Saints side was 3-0 down by this point, offered no excuses for O’Halloran.
And given the fact he got himself dismissed at Tannadice on day one of the campaign, he is stretching his manager’s patience.
“He said sorry but it has happened,” said Davidson.
“I had no complaints whatsoever.
“Michael is an experienced player and he was already booked and I am really disappointed.
“He has to earn my trust to play again.”
The first, excusable, booking was for a foul on Alfredo Morelos and the second for a mistimed tackle on Borna Barisic.
Davidson added: “Would you say it was over exuberance? He is nearly 30 and he knows what you need to do in the game and if you have been booked then don’t give the referee the opportunity to give you another one, unless it is the last minute or a last-ditch tackle but that was on the halfway line.
“Their player wasn’t going anywhere.
“But it isn’t this game where it costs us, it will be the next one which is important with the group of players we have.”
Meanwhile, Davidson felt the 3-0 defeat had a lot of similarities to the first game against Rangers in August that ended in an identical scoreline.
“First 20 minutes I was pleased and we looked pretty comfortable then from a throw-in in our own half we managed to get everything wrong, give away a goal and we were 1-0 down,” he said.
“It came from five or six basic mistakes and after another five minutes and we were 2-0 down. Again, from another situation, where we can deal with things better.
“After that it is an uphill struggle to stay in the game.
“After 46 minutes we went 3-0 down, similar to Ibrox, and that’s the game over.
“What I would say to the players, especially Chris Kane, Shaun Rooney and Ali McCann, was they all kept going and fighting to the end and were unlucky not to get a goal or two.”
