Dev League: St Johnstone 1 Dundee United 2

The Tangerines, with a full complement of five overage players, just edged out Saints in a keenly contested Tayside derby at McDiarmid tonight.

By Peter Rundo

Saints started on the front foot John Robertson forcing a good save from Josh Donaldson after 10 minutes.

Shortly afterwards, Donaldson almost gifted Saints a goal, his poor kick out fell to David McMillan but his volley went just past.

However, six minutes from the interval, United capitalised on a Saints mistake to take the lead against the run of play.

Emil Lyng intercepted Stefan Sougall’s wayward free-kick and bore in on goal before slotting the ball home from 12 yards.

And United doubled their lead 12 minutes after the restart when Gav Ritchie played a one-two with Declan Glass and carried on to drill the ball just inside the near post.   

Saints pulled one back midway through the half when Alistair McCann bulleted home a header from a corner.

Both sides spurned golden chances towards the end, Liam Gordon inches away from heading the home side level and Logan Chalmers firing wide when right through at the other end.

With three minutes left, Ritchie came to United’s rescue, clearing a Cameron Ballantyne effort off the line. 

St Johnstone: Sinclair, Conway, Thomson, McCann, Gordon, Wilson, Ballantyne, McClean, McMillan (Hendry 32 (Docherty 77), Scougall, Robertson.

Subs not Used: Wallace, Lumsden, Quigley, Brian,

Dundee United:  Donaldson, Zata, Ritchie, Briels (Nicolson 88), Bollan, Edjenguele, M Smith, Slater Lyng (Kadded 58), Glass (Mockrie 62), Chalmers.

Subs not used: Inglis, Mcmeekin, Taylor, Davidson.