FOSTER A SINNER AGAIN FOR THE
TEN-MAN St Johnstone crashed to yet another home defeat as Dundee completed a Premiership derby double over their Tayside rivals.
An early strike from Marcus Haber and a last gasp clincher from A-Jay Leitch-Smith consigned sorry Saints to a fifth home loss in seven since they last won on their own patch.
That was back on September 23 when they beat Hamilton, 2-1. Since then they have managed to garner just two points from a possible 21.
Willie Collum’s decision to order off Saints defender Richard Foster midway through the first half for a challenge on Paul McGowan increased the size of the home side’s task.
They already trailed from Haber’s third-minute strike and had been under pressure prior to Foster seeing red.
Whether the defender’s challenge actually merited dismissal is open to debate, but Collum is no stranger to controversy, also seeing fit to dispense six cautions — four St Johnstone and two Dundee — despite it never being that sort of affair.
Not that ex-Aberdeen and Rangers star Foster is a shrinking violet, most notably when he tangles with Dundee.
Earlier this season he incurred a retrospective two-match suspension by the SFA for ‘excessive misconduct’.
Foster took his frustration out on referee Alan Muir’s dressing-room door at Dens Park in the wake of a 3-2 defeat in September.
The player reacted in frustration at having a penalty awarded against him, from which Sofien Moussa scored the winner.
But Saints manager Tommy Wright appeared not to have a definitive opinion of the sending-off.
He said: ‘It doesn’t matter, does it, it’s happened. I am more concerned with the number of decisions we didn’t get across the pitch.
‘It seemed to be only our players getting booked for similar fouls to Dundee’s, but Willie sees it totally differently because he’s closer to it. But I probably wasn’t happy with his performance overall.