St Mirren vs Dundee. Scottish Premiership.
The SMiSA StadiumAttendance6,581.
Match report as St Mirren go top of the cinch Premiership with a 2-0 win against Dundee
Saturday 12 August 2023 20:00, UK
St Mirren moved top of the Scottish Premiership with a 2-1 victory over Dundee.
After dominating for the first hour, Josh Mulligan's goal set up a nervous ending for the Buddies, though they would hold firm to keep up their winning start to the new campaign.
Following defeat, Dundee dropped to eighth spot in the table and are still looking for their first win since returning to the top flight.
The first chance of the match fell to the hosts, with Scott Tanser heading over Ryan Strain's cross.
But St Mirren opened the scoring after seven minutes when Joe Shaughnessy diverted Conor McMenamin's cross beyond Trevor Carson and into his own net.
McMenamin almost doubled the hosts' lead when he crashed a header beyond the Dundee keeper, only to be denied by the crossbar.
Dundee were handed a brilliant opportunity to level matters 10 minutes before half-time when Mikael Mandron was adjudged to have held back Lee Ashcroft inside the area.
Colin Steven went to the monitor before pointing to the spot, though Zach Robinson would see his penalty kept out by the legs of Zach Hemming.
It took a good stop by Carson to prevent Strain's cross from creeping under the bar on the stroke of half-time before Saints struck again.
Caolan Boyd-Munce's corner found Mandron, who made no mistake in dispatching his header into the bottom corner.
Greg Kiltie headed narrowly over shortly after the restart as the home side continued to control proceedings.
The visitors pulled a goal back in the 63rd minute when Mulligan glanced Scott Tiffoney's cross past Hemming.
Suddenly, the momentum had swung the way of the visitors and Luke McGowan passed up a glorious opportunity to level when he fired at the legs of the St Mirren 'keeper after bursting clear on goal.
It took an excellent goal-line clearance by Shaughnessy to keep out Alex Grieve's low effort, and the referee consulted VAR again to confirm the ball did not cross the line.
Seven minutes of added time brought additional hope for Dundee, though they would fail to threaten the home goal - ensuring it was St Mirren who took all three points.
St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "Result wise it has been very good. In both games we've gone 2-0 up, lot's of good quality - in the first half we should have been up by more.
"We need a little bit more composure in managing the game, it became a little bit frantic and panicky but we still created chances.
"We were resolute and showed real determination to hang on. We've managed to pick up results while we're improving and I think we'll continue to improve."
Dundee Utd manager Tony Docherty: "I felt we didn't start the game well and St Mirren were by far the better team in the first half.
"In the second half we changed the shape and we were really unlucky not to get a point and maybe even go on and win it if we'd got that second goal.
"I've got experience of this league, it's punishing and if you don't take your opportunities then it'll come back and bite you - that happened today.
"We need to learn quick. In both games we've played, we've probably merited more points than we've taken. There's a lot of boys it's their first time playing in the Premiership, the positive to take is we've shown we are good enough."
St Mirren's attention turns to the Scottish League Cup with a second-round tie at home to Motherwell on August 19.
Their next Scottish Premiership match is against Aberdeen on August 26.
Dundee failed to progress in the League Cup so their next match is at home to Hearts on the same day. Both games kick-off at 3pm.
