St Johnstone Fight All The Way But Dundee Take The Points

St Johnstone made a real go of it in this game and at times their play reinforced the old saying that the dividing line between success and failure is sometimes razor thin. When you're down precious little goes right for you and Saints deserved better from a game they never gave up hope of getting something from.

Dundee just had the edge on chances created, though Saints had more shots on target than they did, and the dark blues maybe just deserved to win in the end, though Saints could justifiably argue a draw would have been a fairer result.

Both keepers were called upon to make remarkable saves, Miller from Rae and Sara, whilst Speroni made two miraculous saves, none more so than his acrobatic leap near the end to hold a Falconer netbound header. Fan Zhiyi hit the post with a rocket from outside the box that had the keeper well beaten, and later Ketsbaia saw a bending, curling shot hit the crossbard for Dundee, whilst Saints also hit the crossbar in the first half.

KIKO TORRES, the Spanish midfielder sealed the points for Dundee with a speculative effort from 25 yards. It looked an easy one for keeper Miller, but either he was unsighted or the efforts of Robertson to get out of the way of the shot put him off. Whatever happened he seemed slow to react and the ball trundled into the right hand corner for what turned out to be the winner.

For long spells in this game both teams seemed more set on giving the ball away than creating anything in the other team's penalty area. But there was enough excitement and crunching tackles to keep all but the football purists happy.

It wasn't a dirty game, only one booking. But Dundee lost striker Sara when Miller the Saints keeper, came out to punch the ball away and took Juan full in the face as well. The flag was up, the whistle had gone, but the keeper acting out of instinct, made the save nontheless and the concussed Argentinian was stretchered off.

My man of the match had to be Temuri Ketsbaia, whose runs and deft passes into space sliced Saints apart on a few occasions, followed closely by the magnificent Julian Speroni in goal, the discovery of the season. Kiko Torres worked his socks off, as did Barry Robertson, whilst Barry Smith gave little away at the back. Fan Zhiyi did enough to merit a word in passing, his leadership qualities were seen to the full, and Walter Del Rio, one or two shaky moments aside, looked composed and committed.

FULLER REPORT LATER.