Perth men at last hit top gear on home soil
IT hasn’t always been the case this season but, on this evidence, visiting McDiarmid Park would once again seem to hold all the appeal of a trip to see a James Blunt gig in Helmand Province.
St Johnstone have already lost more games at home this season (six) than they did throughout all of the last campaign (five) — and the egg-rolling festivities are not yet upon us.
Granted, they could hardly have wished for more obliging opponents than Dundee, but normal service was resumed in Perth yesterday as first-half goals from Paul Paton and Blair Alston cemented Saints’ position in the top six.
They sit just a point behind fourthplaced Hearts, which could be enough to secure European football, should the team who finishes first, second or third in the Premiership also win the Scottish Cup.
Essentially, as things stand, Hibs winning the Scottish Cup is the only thing that would prevent the team who finish fourth from securing continental football.
‘We know we can’t take anything for granted in terms of the top six,’ said Saints boss Tommy Wright. ‘But we also have one eye on Hearts and we want to catch them.
‘You can’t take your foot off the gas. We have a good gap over Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock below us, but we want to keep pushing and see how high we can go.
‘We dominated Dundee right from the first whistle and, when we play with that kind of aggression and tempo, there are not many teams who can live with us — especially at home.’
Graham Cummins missed a glorious opportunity to put Saints into the lead after just five minutes. You could have driven a bus through the gap between Dundee centre-halves Darren O’Dea and Kostadin Gadzhalov as Saints striker Steven MacLean dinked a simple cross into the penalty area but, in acres of space and with the goal at his mercy, Cummins miscued his header straight into the arms of Scott Bain.
Dundee’s aerial vulnerability was a sign of things to come, however, and Saints duly punished them to take the lead on 12 minutes.
Joe Shaughnessy launched a long diagonal pass from centre-half. The ball travelled the best part of 50 yards in the air, but Gadzhalov was weak and hesitant as he challenged Cummins in the air. The Irish striker cushioned a knockdown header back across goal for the onrushing Paton to nick in ahead of Bain and head into the empty net.
Bain certainly didn’t cover himself in glory for that opener, but the Dundee goalkeeper would have been even angrier with his efforts when Alston fired Saints into a 2-0 lead on 19 minutes.
MacLean was the creator, realising that Kevin Holt was out of position and duly flicking a clever pass into the space vacated by the Dundee left-back.
It was far from an easy chance for Alston. The frustration for Bain will be how easily he allowed a shot from 25 yards to beat him at his near post. It was a powerful strike from the Saints midfielder, but Bain’s attempted dive to save it came in instalments.
Dundee were booed off at half-time, and they improved slightly in the second half. James Vincent had their best chance of the match on 48 minutes but, from his driven shot, Zander Clark got down low to save.
However, the Perth men always looked comfortable enough.
Dundee boss Paul Hartley admitted: ‘We were second best in every department. We are sometimes a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde kind of team.
‘Coming to a place like St Johnstone, you are asking for trouble if you give them a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
‘It is a massive blow to our chances of getting into the top six.’