St Johnstone’s Liam Craig insists that a disallowed goal by skipper Steven Anderson was the big turning point in the derby at Dens against Dundee on Saturday.
Saints had just pulled it back to 2-1 with Craig scoring the first of his two penalties in the game when Anderson rose highest to head past home keeper Scott Bain.
However, referee Alan Muir ruled the goal out, gesturing that the St Johnstone skipper had pushed down on Dundee captain Darren O’Dea.
Instead of Saints drawing level, the Dark Blues then went up the park and scored their penalty to make it 3-1. Another Craig spot-kick made it 3-2 but ultimately St Johnstone headed back to Perth without any points and with their unbeaten start to the league campaign at an end.
Craig said: “Everyone from outside will look at us and say we have made a good start and all the rest of it.
“But we put a lot of pressure on ourselves in the dressing-room to get results and we felt we had the players in the squad to come here and get a win.
“That’s the hard thing to take – we have come away from home, scored two goals, it should have been three.
“It (the disallowed goal) was a massive turning point in the game. We didn’t get it, they have gone right up the park and get a penalty to make it 3-1.”
Meanwhile, Dundee’s A-Jay Leitch-Smith admits he would have loved to have had the chance to mark his Dens debut with a hat-trick but there was a big obstacle standing in his way – team-mate Sofien Moussa.
Leitch-Smith netted a goal in each half before the striker was brought down for the second of three penalties in total in the match.
He hoped to have the chance to take the spot-kick but Tunisian Moussa had other ideas.
However, Leitch-Smith is just delighted that Dundee have finally broken their league duck for the season with the 3-2 win over Saints also lifting them off the foot of the Premiership table.
The 27-year-old on-loan Shrewsbury Town player said: “I did want to take the penalty but I think there was no getting the ball off Moussa!
“I grabbed the ball initially but our captain Darren came over to me and asked me to pass it to him.
“I thought he was going to put it on the spot but then he gave it to Moussa and I thought, ‘Fair enough’.
“But there was no getting the ball from him after that.
“It was a bit of a crazy game with three penalties but thankfully we got that win.”
Dundee now face Celtic in the League Cup at Dens on Wednesday night and Leitch-Smith hopes his side can take confidence from the win over Saints into that match.
He added: “It is a big game and a tough one but hopefully we can get something out of it.
“I made my debut against Rangers last week and these are the sort of big games you want to play in.
“Now that we have three points on the board, hopefully we can take that into Wednesday and do well again.”
