Aberdeen 0 St Johnstone 0: Saints start strong but fade in Pittodrie stalemate

St Johnstone were missing a final piece of quality but added a point to their Premiership tally in the pouring rain at Pittodrie.

Perth boss Steven MacLean would have been very content with how his players had operated in the opening 10 minutes of the match.

Promising positions had been worked on a couple of occasions and, very early, Luke Jephcott rifled over the bar from strike partner Dara Costelloe’s knockdown.

Later, speculative efforts arrived in Graham Carey’s back post volley - it almost landed in the North Sea - and Matt Smith’s curler from the edge of the box.

Carey would go closer with a sweetly struck volley from a well-worked corner before the Dons thought they had the lead on the stroke of half-time.

Andy Considine had nodded Connor Barron’s delivery into his own net but, after a lengthy VAR check, which required a pitchside monitor look, the goal was ruled out for offside.

It would have been particularly harsh on Saints who, for large parts of the first half, had pinged the ball about rather nicely and with purpose.

As has often been the case this season, the final piece to the puzzle was missing and that last touch of quality.

The Dons were first to threaten at the start of the second half but Jamie McGrath’s volley from the edge of the box was never low enough to trouble Dimitar Mitov.

Chris Kane replaced Jephcott in the 65th minute as Saints went on the hunt for a route to goal.

It was actually skipper Liam Gordon who almost opened the scoring with a fierce right-footed drive which deflected narrowly behind for a corner.

With 72 minutes played, defender Luke Robinson was almost punished for slack play at the back but Bojan Miovski lifted his effort over the bar.

Just after that Cammy MacPherson entered