St Johnstone’s veterans laid the platform for the Perth side’s stunning Tayside derby victory on Saturday, according to striker Chris Kane.
And the rest of the team followed their lead.
The likes of Chris Millar, Steven Anderson, Steven MacLean and Murray Davidson produced a vintage performance in the 4-0 Dens Park rout when it was really needed.
“I thought their experience showed from start to finish,” said two-goal Kane. “Everywhere on the pitch, we dominated.
“We defended well, the midfield battled away and me and Macca up front pressed them into making mistakes. All over the park we were brilliant, I thought.
“The manager had us up for it. It was a game we really wanted to win. We had to win. He had us ready for it and I think we showed that we were.”
Saints have won at Ibrox and Easter Road this season and drawn twice at Celtic Park but this display goes straight to the top of their best 2017/18 performances.
They took control of the contest from the first whistle and never loosened their grip. An own goal from Jordan Piggott was an unfortunate way to go behind for Dundee but there was nothing unfortunate about the scoreline at that point or at full-time.
Kane added a second before he and Blair Alston completed the job after the break.
“We went in 2-0 up at half-time but we knew that wasn’t game over,” he added. “I think the third was the one that killed it off.
“This could be our biggest win of the season – the fact that it was against Dundee as well. We’ve scored four goals and kept a clean sheet.
“We knew we hadn’t done well against them this season but it wasn’t spoken about in the build-up because we wanted to go into the match in a positive frame of mind.
“We’d have taken any sort of win. A 1-0 would have been great but 4-0 is fantastic.”
Kane scored a hat-trick in the Scottish Cup against Albion Rovers on his return from Queen of the South but has had to wait a few more weeks to get up and running again in the league.
“It’s been coming,” he said. “I’ve been getting chances. I knew that the goals would come and thankfully that has happened today.”
Kane didn’t get caught up in the post-match spat.
“I just saw everyone get together,” he said. “I don’t know what has happened.
“I’m just delighted to get the win and go down the road happy.
“That’s a great result for us. Hamilton got three points as well, so they’ve climbed up. We just need to focus on ourselves and make sure we get enough points on the board to keep us safe.”
Saints had only scored 25 goals in the whole campaign before Saturday so four in one afternoon is far from the norm. That it could have been even more was not an exaggerated observation from Tommy Wright.
“We dominated the game from the first whistle,” he said. “The first goal was important because we’ve started games well in the past and not scored.
“Once we got it, they were limited to a couple of counter-attacks. I’m disappointed it was only four. It should probably have been more.
“You could say that performance has been in our locker. Now that it’s out hopefully we can build on it.”
