St Johnstone passed their way to an easy victory in a pre-season friendly at Dens Park on Wednesday night.
Hosts Dundee did not see enough of the ball to trouble the men from Perth, who grabbed two goals through Stevie May (20 minutes) and ex-Dark Blue Dave MacKay (51)
Satisfied Saints boss Derek McInnes, who will take his team down to Ayr on Saturday for their final summer fixture, said, “We made what could have been a difficult match quite comfortable.
“I would have liked to have worked their keeper a bit more and there are areas which I would like to fine tune but our approach was spot on, our decision-making was good and we did play well. Overall, it was a very comfortable win.”
Dundee gaffer Barry Smith was not too downhearted, saying, “It just showed we have a lot to work on but also a lot to work with.
“We took a wee while to get going but St Johnstone are a very good team.”
The Dark Blues fielded one of their two trialists, former Dunfermline man Neil McGregor, in central defence alongside Kyle Benedictus, while the other, Ewan Moyes from Brechin City, started on the bench.
Saints gave another chance to their own trialist, Marcus Haber, in a strong-looking line-up.
Facing his former club was home striker Steven Milne and he made the first break of the match on four minutes, only being stopped from shooting by a fine tackle from Callum Davidson.
Up at the other end, Saints midfielder David Robertson sent a snap-shot wide but the Perth men were not to be denied on 20 minutes.Saints sereneA corner was swung over from the right by ex-Dens frontman Sean Higgins and nodded goalwards by Haber. In perfect position was May, who head-flicked the ball into the net to give the visitors the lead.
Davidson had a 30-yard free-kick well saved by Dark Blues keeper Robert Douglas before a half dominated by the crisp-passing visitors came to an end.
Saints made a switch at the break, bringing on Chris Millar for Kevin Moon in the middle of the park, while trialist Moyes came on for the hosts in place of Connor Rennie, with McGregor moving into midfield.
The McDiarmid men picked up where they left off-stretching the Dundee defence-and defender Gary Irvine did well to send a Haber cutback away for a corner.
It was 2-0 on 51 minutes when Jody Morris split the Dens defence with a brilliant low pass into the box to find MacKay.
The full-back did an excellent impersonation of a tricky winger with some fine footwork before he sent a low drive past Douglas.
Liam Craig took the place of May and Morris made way for Jamie Adams, while Dundee tried to get a spark up front by introducing young Leighton McIntosh for Jake Hyde.
Moyes tested Saints goalie Peter Enckelman with a header on 65 minutes before the visitors made more switches, taking off Robertson, MacKay, Frazer Wright and Davidson, while bringing on Liam Caddis, Alan Maybury, David McCracken and Ricky McIntosh.
The changes didn’t disrupt their rhythmn, though, and they saw the game out with little trouble.