St Johnstone were defeated by an English Premiership side for the second time in three days when two late goals gave Bolton Wanderers victory at McDiarmid Park.
Perth boss Derek McInnes wasn’t too downhearted, however, as he felt his team’s slump in the closing stages was the result of a gruelling recent pre-season programme.
He pointed out, “For about 80 minutes we matched a very good side but that was our fourth game in six days and in hindsight that was a huge demand of my players.
“I wasn’t able to change things around as much as I would have wanted in those games so it was a big ask of a lot of players.
“In the long term, though, it won’t do us any harm and there were a lot of pleasing aspects of the game.”
His predecessor at McDiarmid, Bolton manager Owen Coyle, predicted a successful season for his former club.
He said, “That was a very competitive game and was a good exercise for both teams. Every time I see Saints there is a progression.
“They were very unlucky to not make the top six last season and that will definitely be their aspiration this time around.”
McInnes made three changes to the side which lost to Manchester United in Alan Main’s testimonial on Saturday, with Michael Duberry, Sam Parkin and trialist defender Stuart Duff all starting.
In contrast to the weekend match, which was action-packed from the off, last night’s friendly was very much a slow burner.
The crowd had to wait until the 15th minute for the first real threat on goal from either team.TeasingSaints’ Chris Millar made a strong run down the right flank and whipped over a teasing cross aimed at Sam Parkin, who had charged into the box at the near post.
The burly striker, however, was thwarted by a perfectly-timed interception from multi-million pound rated defender Gary Cahill, who turned the ball behind.
From the resultant corner the ball eventually broke to Liam Craig on the opposite side of the pitch and he floated a cross into the six-yard box which Steven Anderson narrowly failed to connect with.
Saints continued to take the play to their Premiership opponents and Marcus Haber won a free-kick 25 yards out when he was brought down by Stuart Holden.
Unfortunately for the home team, Danny Grainger was wide of the target with the set-piece.
Just short of the half-hour mark Bolton made their presence felt when Fabrice Muamba burst through the centre of midfield and fed a pass into the path of Kevin Davies.
From the 18-yard line the Wanderers’ captain attempted a deft lob of Graeme Smith but it drifted just over the crossbar.
At the other end of the pitch, on 39 minutes, Parkin sought to succeed where Davies had failed but he too couldn’t score with an edge of the box lob, which this time was underhit and comfortably gathered by Jussi Jaaskelainen.PoweredSix minutes into the second half, Martin Petrov powered into the Saints box and his progress seemed to be slowed by an Anderson tug, but referee Willie Collum waved away the Bulgarian’s penalty claim.
Both sides made a few second half substitutions. One of the Perth replacements, winger Cleveland Taylor, found Millar in space with his first touch.
The Saints midfielder should have then done better with a straightforward pass to another sub, Scott Dobie, which would have given him a tap-in to an open goal.
However, it was clumsily overhit and flashed across the six-yard box untouched.
Taylor came close again to helping create a Saints opener when a perfectly-weighted cross found Dobie, whose diving header flew just wide of the near post.
Bolton broke the deadlock on 77 minutes with a moment of individual quality from Petrov.
He cushioned a long diagonal ball from Robbie Blake, cut inside left-back Grainger and rifled a powerful shot into the roof of the net.
Their lead was doubled just four minutes later when Blake found Johan Elmander in space on the Bolton right and he finished low past a helpless Smith.
Bolton came close to making the final scoreline even more emphatic when a Gretar Steinson shot from the edge of the box shaved Smith’s left-hand post.
Attendance 2076.
St Johnstone Smith, Duff, Grainger (Jackson 81), Morris, Anderson, Duberry, Millar, Davidson (Taylor 65), Parkin (Dobie 61), Craig, Haber (Samuel 45).
Bolton Jaaskelainen, Steinson, Cahill, Knight, Robinson, Chung (Alonso 75), Holden (M Davies 71), Muamba (Cohen 81), Taylor (Blake 65), Petrov, K Davies (Elmander 75).
Referee Willie Collum.