St. Johnstone edge Dundee FC 2-1 at McDiarmid Park
St. Johnstone beat Dundee FC 2-1 on MatchDay 13 of the Scottish Premiership. Here are the goals in order and the result set against September's draw.
By Harvey Watkins,
St. Johnstone beat Dundee FC 2-1 at McDiarmid Park on Saturday afternoon. A one-goal margin settled a Scottish Premiership fixture that had finished level when the sides last met. The scoring came early, resumed straight after the interval and closed in the 72nd minute. After that the result held.
It was a narrow result, and it should be read as one. The scoreline says the home side found a second goal that their visitors could not match. It does not say the afternoon was one-sided, and nothing about the way the goals fell suggests a match that got away from either team.
How the goals came
The match had barely settled when Josh Campbell scored in the fifth minute. It was the only goal of the first half, so whoever led at the break had held that advantage for most of the opening 45 minutes.
The second half was two minutes old when Joe Westley scored, in the 47th minute. A goal that soon after the restart changes the shape of a match before any half-time plan has had a chance to play out.
Kai Fotheringham scored the final goal of the afternoon in the 72nd minute. Nobody added to it in the remaining time, and the 2-1 scoreline stood to the whistle.
- 5 minutes: Josh Campbell
- 47 minutes: Joe Westley
- 72 minutes: Kai Fotheringham
All three goals came at moments that tend to matter. One came early in the first half, one immediately after the restart and one in the closing stretch. In a match decided by a single goal, each of them carried weight.
Set against September
This was the second meeting between the clubs this season. The first, on 2 September, ended Dundee FC 1-1 St. Johnstone. That draw left nothing between them, and Saturday's result is the first time either side has come out ahead in those two meetings.
Both matches have been tight. Dundee FC have scored once in each game, and St. Johnstone have now scored once and then twice. Two matches is a small sample, and nobody should build a theory about this fixture on it. What can be said is that neither game has produced a comfortable afternoon for anyone, and the margin has never been more than a goal.
What it amounts to
For St. Johnstone, this was a home win over a side they could not separate from in September. That is a straightforward reward from MatchDay 13. For Dundee FC, it was a defeat by the narrowest margin. They scored away from home and still came away with nothing.
Beyond that, the honest position is that one result says only so much. Over two meetings, St. Johnstone have a win and a draw against Dundee FC, and every game has been settled by a goal or less. If the clubs meet again this season, the evidence so far points to another close contest rather than a predictable one.