Callum Davidson pleased to replace Danny McNamara with James Brown

| 06 January 2021

Callum Davidson worked as assistant to New Den boss Gary Rowett before he took over as manager of the Perth club last summer.

St Johnstone boss Callum Davidson has explained how he was able to replace one loan player from Millwall with another.

Davidson worked as assistant to New Den boss Gary Rowett before he took over as manager of the Perth club last summer and he returned to South London to take defender Danny McNamara on loan.

The Republic of Ireland youth international impressed so much that Rowett recalled him from his scheduled year-long loan six months early, although he allowed Davidson to take James Brown as a replacement until the end of the season.

The McDiarmid Park manager said: "Both of them were down the road at the time when I was there and James probably trained the majority of the time with the first team and Danny was away on loan and came back.

"I would have taken either of them but I took Danny first because James was more involved with the first team.

"It came about with Gary that he wanted to recall Danny and I said, 'can I get James?' and he said yes.

"So it was a pretty good deal, pretty stress-free. I was really happy to get James, I knew of his qualities.

"He is a slightly different player from Danny but hopefully he will do as well as Danny and I have every confidence he will.

"Having contacts down the road has been helpful. I think it also helps that I have been down the road and worked there for a few years so I know the players as well.

"You have a better chance of getting people up here if they know you."