St Johnstone rediscovered their home form with a clinical defeat of Kilmarnock, thanks to a double from top scorer Fran Sandaza.
Steve Lomas’ men had lost their last three matches at McDiarmid Park prior to this fixture, giving cause for concern that their style of football was better suited to life on the road.
However, they brought the ruthless efficiency they showed at Dunfermline on Saturday back to Perth to seal a victory that owed as much to Peter Enckelman and his defence’s determination not to be beaten as it did to Sandaza’s eye for a goal.
Lomas said: ”We asked the boys to put in a good home performance and I thought they did. Fran will get the plaudits but it wasn’t down to one man. The commitment, desire and determination was there from the whole team.”
Lomas revealed he is doing everything he can to persuade Sandaza who now has 12 goals this season to stay with the club, including cooking him his dinner.
He said: ”Fran lives just across the road and he’s had a bit of Irish hospitality. He won’t get another manager that will do that for him!”
Lomas started with the same XI who won 3-0 at East End Park. The wind albeit not nearly as strong as a couple of weeks ago for the Aberdeen match played its part in the first penalty-box action of the match.
On three minutes an inswinging James Dayton corner was misjudged by Enckelman, but fortunately for the Perth keeper there were no Killie players on hand to take advantage.
Killie definitely looked the likelier team to break the deadlock and they should have done just that on 16 minutes. Dean Shiels put Paul Heffernan through on goal but the Irishman blasted his shot straight at Enckelman when more craft was required.
Chris Millar did well to chase down a long diagonal ball from Steven Anderson before it reached the byeline, and lofted a cross to the back post. Marcus Haber was poised to bury it but Manuel Pascali got in before him to head clear.
Saints improvement was rewarded on 25 minutes when Sandaza scored the opener.
Dave Mackay rose to meet a Jody Morris corner and his goalbound header was hooked off the line by Liam Kelly.
It only proved to be a half-clearance, however, and after the ball bobbled about the box the Spaniard poked it home from five yards out.
Moments before the goal, Killie’s Rory McKeown had been replaced by Danny Racchi, and the substitute forced a fantastic fingertip save by Enckelman with a long-range shot which came back off the base of the post.
Just after the half-hour mark the Rugby Park players and management were appealing as one for a penalty, claiming a Dayton shot struck David McCracken’s arm. Referee Iain Brines waved play on.
Killie were doing everything but score at this stage, and Heffernan was the next player to be foiled by a good Enckelman save when the Finn gathered his low shot from a tight angle.
A one-goal deficit at the break would have been hard enough to stomach for Shiels’ men, but their half-time misery was magnified by an injury-time second for Saints.
Craig sent over an inswinging corner and Sandaza jumped unchallenged to bullet home a header at the back post for his and the hosts’ second of the night.
Saints came close to a third on 55 minutes when Bell could only palm a fierce Haber strike into the air.
The ball was looping towards the net but James Fowler got back in time to clear from under his crossbar.
Kilmarnock were nearly presented with a route back into the game when McCracken lost possession on the edge of his own box but the shot from Shiels was a wild one.
On 63 minutes it took a magnificent save-of-the-season candidate from Enckelman to divert a Heffernan volley over the bar.
Millar pulled up clutching his hamstring when he was running down the touchline and was immediately replaced by Carl Finnigan.
Murray Davidson and Garry Hay were the only players to be booked.
Attendance: 2,394.