St Johnstone manager, Craig Levein, has told Adama Sidibeh not to be too hard on himself for failing to send the Perth club’s Premier Sports Cup clash against Rangers into extra-time.
The Gambia international missed the target when the ball dropped nicely for him at the back post in the dying minutes of Saints’ defeat to the cup holders.
Had he put away the golden opportunity from close range, it would have levelled the contest at 1-1.
Sidibeh also came close to scoring at the end of the first half, when his shot from Matt Smith’s cross struck Jack Butland’s near post.
Levein, though, won’t dwell on the fact that the 26-year-old didn’t find the net on either occasion, focusing instead on the fact he was in the right place for a number nine.
And he’ll make sure Sidibeh has a similar mindset heading into Saturday’s Premiership game against Dundee United.
“Adama missed a great chance to equalise but I’ve told him that I don’t mind strikers missing,” said Levein.
“I felt a bit sorry for him because he can take these things quite personally and doesn’t like missing chances.
“I hope he misses more next week and more the next week after that – because that means he’s getting into the positions.”
‘A lot of positives’
Meanwhile, Levein believes the Hampden Park performance continued Saints’ upward trajectory as he begins preparations for the trip to Tannadice.
“I think there were a lot of positives to take from last weekend and we’ll focus on them this week,” said the former United boss.
“I feel we are heading in the right direction.
“I think we had some really good performances against Rangers. We created some good chances.
“Hopefully we can put into practice the things we’ve been working on against Dundee United.
“We have a lot of new players in the team so it takes time to gel but against Rangers I felt we were pretty good defensively.
“We were pretty open at times because of the nature of the system we played.
“I felt our defenders were really good – proper old school defending, blocks, clearances and challenges.
“And I thought Josh (Rae) in goals was very good as well. So there are a lot of positives to focus on.”
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