Dundee and St Johnstone prepare to face off in the quarter finals of the Premier Sports Cup – but recent statistics do not favour the Dark Blues.
With one side guaranteed to represent Tayside in the semi-finals, the home side will look to end a goal drought against their local rivals.
The teams go into Wednesday night’s game on the back of two contrasting results in the Premiership.
Dundee will hope to bounce back from a derby defeat at Tannadice after firing blanks for the third game in a row.
St Johnstone, meanwhile, will look to defend their trophy buoyed by an impressive 1-0 win away to Aberdeen.
Recent history favours Saints
Wednesday’s fixture will be the 168th meeting between the two sides, but while the Dark Blues have emerged victorious in the majority of those, recent history favours the Saints.
In fact, Dundee have not scored against the Perth side in five attempts, which makes their quest to end their barren spell, despite their 46 shots in three games, look even more daunting.
The last time the Dee managed to put the ball past St Johnstone and win was in April 2018 when Sofien Moussa bagged a brace.
We take a look back at the last four seasons to see how the two sides have compared.
2020/2021
There was just the one meeting last season when the promotion-chasing Dark Blues hosted the Saints at Dens in the Scottish Cup.
A Guy Melamed strike in the 20-minute was enough to see St Johnstone through, en-route to lifting the cup.
Last time out against Dundee ❌
Tickets are now on sale from our ticket office or you can call 01738 455000.#SJFC pic.twitter.com/iwwsjWA9fE
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) September 9, 2021
It could have all been very different had Charlie Adam converted from the penalty spot, but Zander Clark was on hand to save the day.
2018/2019
The sides met four times in the season which saw Dundee relegated.
Four games, four St Johnstone wins, zero goals for Dundee.
It was all too easy for the Perth side with the Dark Blues failing to land a glove on their Tayside rivals.
Callum Hendry scored in two of the four games – he’ll hope to be on the scoresheet again if he gets an opportunity on Wednesday.
2017/2018
The 2017/2018 season was the last time there was a real tussle between the two sides – and that’s not including the friction between then-managers Neil McCann and Tommy Wright!
There were four meetings, this time with two wins apiece.
The stand-out clash was the Saints’ 4-0 win at Dens Park, which ended with ugly scenes at full-time when McCann and Zander Clark almost came to blows.
2016/2017
St Johnstone emerged victorious in this head-to-head too, winning two out of the three games.
Tommy Wright’s men won their two home games, while Dundee won the Dens Park meeting 3-0 on Hogmanay.
The win was a welcome end to 2016 for then-manager Paul Hartley, but 2017 saw the end of his reign over the Dark Blues.