The Betfred Cup has brought nothing but joy, excitement and thrills for St Johnstone this season.
But the Premiership remains much more of a slow-burn.
As has been the case on a number of occasions in the league over the last few months you were left with the old good point/bad point quandary.
In this instance, given they were up against the third best team in the country, you’d have to say good.
Also in support of the glass half-full perspective is the unbeaten run that has now been extended to six after this 0-0 draw.
Neither team could claim to have put together the sort of sustained pressure or clear-cut chances that warranted a victory.
For Saints, it was perhaps a case of after the lord mayor’s show.
There is always an argument to be made for not changing a winning team, particularly when that winning team secured the club a place in a cup final but Callum Davidson opted against it.
In came Craig Bryson and Michael O’Halloran for Ali McCann and David Wotherspoon.
New loan signing Glenn Middleton was on the bench.
For Aberdeen, the big selection talking point was Derek McInnes starting Scott Wright, despite the fact his pre-contract agreement with Rangers was made official earlier in the week.
The game was only a few minutes old when the Dons boss had to redraw his plans, however.
Tommie Hoban and Ross McCrorie both went down with head injuries when they challenged for a high ball with Chris Kane but only the latter was able to continue after lengthy treatment.
Hoban was replaced by Dean Campbell.
Saints were slow starters on Saturday and it was the same again here.
Putting more than two or three passes together was proving to be a problem and most of the early action was played out in their territory as a consequence.
It was midway through the first half before Zander Clark had a save to make, mind you.
Ex-Saint Matty Kennedy picked out Sam Cosgrove but the big striker made it easy for Clark by directing his six-yard header straight at him.
Saints had a chance of their own a minute later.
Andy Considine went through the back of Shaun Rooney at the corner of the box, earning himself a yellow card in the process.
Craig Conway took the free-kick and dropped it on to the head of Murray Davidson but he couldn’t keep his effort down.
The best bit of football of the half – there wasn’t too much to choose from admittedly – was a sweet through-ball from Wright for Ryan Hedges and it took a superb last-ditch tackle from Jamie McCart to prevent a goal.
Conway sent over another free-kick from the right, this time finding Jason Kerr. The captain re-directed the ball back into the danger area from where O’Halloran was unable to finish.
Kane was feeding off scraps but chasing down an under hit back pass nearly paid off when Joe Lewis only just managed to get to it before him a few minutes after the re-start.
There was a near thing at the other end seconds later.
Rooney misjudged a Campbell pass that found its way through to Cosgrove. His scuffed close-range shot had enough on it to get past Clark but not enough to get past Bryson who had filled the back post space behind his keeper.
Conway had an opportunity to shoot from a very narrow angle and his strike wasn’t convincingly dealt with by Lewis, who let it slip through his grasp, luckily for him out for a corner, which Saints wasted.
Kennedy came up with some moments of magic at McDiarmid Park in a blue shirt and he produced another one against his old team shortly after the hour mark, cutting in off the left and curling a right foot shot that would have dipped under the bar had it not been for a finger-tip Clark save at full stretch.
O’Halloran hadn’t made any impact on this contest and it was no surprise when he was replaced by Wotherspoon on 65 minutes.
Not long after it was substitute number two, Stevie May for Kane. And, with Davidson not settling for a point, Middleton came on for Conway.
Wotherspoon is one of the cleanest strikers of a ball in the Perth team and he would have been hugely frustrated to sky a shot over from just inside the box when it sat up nicely for him.
In stoppage time Middleton forced a good save out of Lewis with a well-struck left foot shot but if ever a game was destined to finish 0-0 it was this one.
