St Johnstone cruised into the next round of the Scottish Cup with a professional and clinical display against Stenhousemuir.
Tommy Wright’s men pretty much controlled this tie from the first minute to the last and the League One side never came close to threatening an upset.
Steven MacLean gave the Perth side an early lead, with Blair Alston scoring the second, also in the first half.
The fact that they weren’t able to add to their tally after that won’t concern Wright, who couldn’t have asked for a smoother passage into the last 16 of the competition they won back in 2014.
Saints were nearly in front in the third minute. A Brian Easton cross from the left picked out MacLean, whose shot was heading towards goal only for his team-mate, Graham Cummins, to get in the way of it.
MacLean didn’t have long to wait for a goal, though. Three minutes to be exact. This time he got on the end of a cross from the other flank – Chris Millar’s – and gave keeper Colin McCabe no chance with his header from six yards.
MacLean had another chance on 14 minutes, again with his head. He got the direction spot on but his back-post attempt didn’t have the necessary power to trouble McCabe.
This game could quite easily have been put to bed before the midway point of the first half. Danny Swanson beat two men to create a shooting chance for himself at the edge of the box but, after doing the hard bit, he dragged his effort past the post.
It was pretty much game over on 32 minutes when Saints got their second. Cummins flicked the ball on, MacLean laid it into the path of Alston and the former Falkirk man made no mistake from 18 yards.
On the stroke of half-time a corner resulted in Joe Shaughnessy heading just over the bar and the Perth men went into the break 2-0 up.
Saints were just as dominant in the second half as they had been in the first but the chances didn’t come along as regularly.
Alston had a long-range effort that nearly caught McCabe out and Cummins came close to finishing off a flowing Saints move.
There were a few other near things but Stenny battled well and kept the score down to just the two.
