But midfielder Davidson says the squad are itching to take on Gary Holt's side and get their campaign back on track.

He told SaintsTV: "It's been a long week. We've been looking forward to getting out there and putting things right.

"We were hugely disappointed last week. We feel we let ourselves and a lot of people down.

"But we need to respond. There's no point feeling sorry for ourselves.

"This is a big chance now for us to get our season up and running.

"There's no point standing speaking about it. We have to be better than we were last week because if we're not we won't pick up any points."

Boss Wright expects his team to take the game to Livingston having dominated the Lions last term.

The Northern Irishman – who has handed goalkeeper Zander Clark a two-year deal to keep him at McDiarmid Park until 2022 – said: "The Celtic game was extremely disappointing.

"An extremely disappointing performance with very few positives. But we have learned from it. We've trained really well this week and the players are raring to go.

"The onus will be on us to take the game to Livingston and make sure we get three points to get our season up and running. We've got to be strong at home and get on the front foot.

"We've done well against the teams that were in the bottom six last season. We took maximum points off Dundee, 10 from St Mirren and seven off Livingston. These are the games we have to win."