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Published: 5th February 2022
United returned to the scene of their first away victory of the 2021/22 season, McDiarmid Park, to face a St Johnstone side buoyed by a 90th-minute winner in Livingston on Tuesday. Last time the sides clashed, Ali Crawford’s first-half strike was the difference as United sent a barrage of shots at Zander Clark but to no avail with the Saints stopper pulling off save after save to ensure Callum Davidson’s men went home happy.
Three changes were made to the XI which drew a blank at Dens, Liam Smith making his long-awaited return from injury along with new signing Tim Akinola and Peter Pawlett both also claiming starting spots.
St Johnstone as expected came out on the front foot inside the opening five minutes, sending multiple crosses into the visitors’ area. United managed to clear the first ball but were slow to the second, giving their opponents the opportunity to recycle the play and go again.
The first foray forward for United came after 11 minutes when the ball was swept wide to Smith by Akinola, the full-back charging forward and finding the feet of Pawlett 30 yards from goal who struck his effort over via a deflection.
A blatant shove by Melker Hallberg on Ian Harkes gave him the opportunity to stroll into the box unchallenged and pick out Crawford. The former Hamilton Accies man had all the time in the world to get his strike off but smashed the underside of the bar wastefully, the ball scrambled to safety by Edwards.
Callum Hendry then went for goal from a tight angle after cutting inside Ross Graham, forcing Benji Siegrist to swat his awkward effort behind for another Saints corner.
United carried a threat from set-pieces, with Dylan Levitt’s front-post corners proving troublesome for the St Johnstone defence. This exact move saw Clark dart in front of his man and glance the ball across the face of goal, Tony Watt inches away from bundling it over the line from point-blank range.
Levitt was at the heart of things again two minutes later, as he zinged a daisy-cutter wide for Watt to collect, stride forward and cut inside Dan Cleary. The striker side-footed a tame shot towards the far corner, Clark gathering the ball at the second time of asking after untidily spilling the strike with his namesake in tangerine on the prowl.
Ex-United man Callum Booth took advantage of an unfortunate slip by Peter Pawlett and fed Hendry on the edge of the box who nutmegged Harkes before hitting the target with a well-struck effort, Siegrist up to the task of beating the ball wide.
Tam Courts looked to the bench at half-time in search of the spark that would ignite United’s second-half performance, introducing Ilmari Niskanen and Scott McMann, a change which saw Calum Butcher shift into midfield along with Nicky Clark who positioned himself in the right half-space to receive on the backfoot from deep.
Niskanen made an instant impact down the left as he left Jamie McCart for dead with a burst of pace and delivered to the back stick for the advancing Smith, his goal-bound half-volley cleared by the head of Booth in the nick of time for St Johnstone.
At the other end, May’s snapshot was thwarted by Siegrist at his near-post.
On the 53rd minute, Hallberg, arguably St Johnstone’s best player up until that point, earned himself a second caution for a cynical tug on Harkes. The American still managed to feed Watt ahead of him who drove across the box and saw his shot blocked by the sliding McCart.
Watt had another half chance, striking a tame effort that was easily collected by the keeper after Butcher found himself in unfamiliar territory in the opposition box.
Tangerine shirts struggled to find their colleagues in advanced positions due to slow ball movement, which allowed Davidson’s men to organise into their compact shape deep inside the half.
The closest United came to breaking the deadlock came on the 76th minute when Smith, who continued to dictate play from his inverted full-back role, stroked it into Watt and he fended off the challenge of McCart before cracking the post from an acute angle.
Pawlett sent another near-post corner into the mixer which Butcher flicked on to Edwards, the centre-half unable to hit the target in a crowded six-yard box.
Edwards was then involved in front of his own goal, having to clear substitute Cammy MacPherson’s cross away from Hendry who was ready to pounce in the middle.
Watt positioned himself extremely deep in a desperate attempt to create the winner in the dying minutes, leaving United without a focal point upfront as Marc McNulty drifted wide.
The final chance of the 90 fell the way of St Johnstone, with Glenn Middleton’s shot deflected by Academy graduate Graham, the full-time whistle sounding less than a minute later after a failed attack from United.
A missed opportunity for United to move back up the table to fifth, with Graham Alexander’s Motherwell the visitors to Tannadice on Wednesday as we look to kick-start 2022 into life.
