Dundee Utd 1
St Johnstone 2
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

For this Tayside derby, both sides were forced into making several changes. Saints lost the services of Cherry, Baltacha and Moore due to injury, whilst Duncan Ferguson was a flu-victim and out of the reckoning in our ranks and Hamish French replaced him. John Clark had recovered from the knee injury which had kept him out of the side for the past two League games and he replaced Alex Cleland in defence. Andy McLaren and Mixu Paatelainen were recalled to the attack with Michael O'Neill relegated to the subs bench and Gary Bollan dropping out. So in total there were four changes from the side which had gone down heavily at Parkhead. Saints made full use of the wind advantage they elected to have in the first half with Lindsay Hamilton twice launching punts into the heart of the United penalty area, but Guido Van De Kamp dealt with both very competently. The game sprung into life in the tenth minute when Hamish French set off on a mazy run past 3 or 4 Saints defenders before he prodded the ball home with his left foot from just inside the box. Immediately afterwards we would have scored again but for the timely (or untimely from our stance) intervention of Harry Curran. Again Hamish French was involved. He cut in from the right and switched the ball to the unmarked Billy McKinlay, who rounded Hamilton, only to see his shot saved on the line by his former Tannadice colleague.

For the rest of the half play was largely confined to the congested midfield area. Though Saints finished the first half much better than they started it they were very lucky not to go in at half-time trailing by two goals, because John Clark hit the post with a header from a McLaren comer on the stroke of the interval.

Saints certainly had more possession in the second half, but rarely threatened. Up until the later stages, Guido Van De Kamp's only enforced activity was to clear from Paul Wright with his feet and dive at the feet of Harry Curran. The whole character of the match changed with 13 minutes left. Dave Narey was adjudged to have deliberately handled a cross. A penalty was given. Dave was ordered off for a second bookable offence. Saints grabbed the life-line; Mark Treanor scored from the spot and we lost our composure to allow Saints to grab a winner five minutes from time when Paul Wright headed home.