St Johnstone and Dundee live down to expectations as basement battle ends in predictable stalemate

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this relegation battle on a wintry midweek night in deepest January comfortably lived down to expectations.

A swirling wind did not help. In fact, this might have been the biggest single factor contributing to the poor fare on offer. But it was never likely to be festival of football in any case.

Both sides toiled to break the chain of recent and not-so-recent league results and came up with a solution that does neither of them much good on the face of it. St Johnstone remain bottom, Dundee second bottom.

Few would bet against both teams fighting out their own private relegation battle at the business end of the campaign but they will both accept the point happily enough and move on.

There were few clear opportunities created but both sides could point to chances that might have left them feeling slightly better about themselves. Saints defender Jamie McCart made a superb clearance off the line after good play from Dundee substitute Charlie Adam on the left in the dying minutes. Callum Hendry was earlier thwarted by a fine Adam Legzdins block.

Despite the forward’s recall from Kilmarnock, St Johnstone’s problems in front of goal continued. This, though, was their first clean sheet in the league since the beginning of November. It’s progress, certainly, but it came at a cost.

The home side suffered a blow they could have done without after just eight minutes when Nadir Ciftci, who was making his home debut, sustained a hamstring injury while trying to latch on to a bizarre attempt at a back header from Dundee defender Ryan Sweeney.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world at the bottom of the table although some previous history at Dundee United – and a specific biting incident – might have been what