Dundee United’s players kept their heads when all about them a former teammate was losing his at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
If and it is still a big if they can stay cool and focused in the last four fixtures of the season they may yet be able to dream about playing in the Champions League next season.
Roared on by a 2000-strong away support, goals from midfield duo Scott Robertson in the first half and John Rankin in the closing seconds gave the Tangerines a deserved win over European qualification rivals St Johnstone.
They were two fine strikes but the major talking point was the straight red card dished out to Saints striker and ex-United favourite Fran Sandaza for kicking out at Tannadice defender Sean Dillon on 57 minutes.
Sandaza’s strop even extended into heated exchanges with colleagues Jamie Adams and Dave Mackay as he made his way towards the tunnel. That lack of discipline contrasted starkly with United’s professionalism as they stormed back from a poor opening 10-minute spell to first get a grip on this crucial game and then maintain their stranglehold.
Results elsewhere both helped their quest to catch third-placed Motherwell and claim the other Champions League slot second-placed Rangers are set to miss out because of their administration and strengthened their bid to at least finish in one of the Europa League spots.
Well lost 3-0 at home to Celtic on Sunday, meaning the gap between them and United is down to three points, while sixth-placed Hearts were beaten by Rangers at Tynecastle on Saturday and now sit four adrift of Peter Houston’s men.
Understandably so with four tough fixtures to go, Houston wasn’t getting carried away.
He said: ”It was a huge three points for us but it doesn’t mean we are going to end up in the Champions League. St Johnstone in the first five minutes could have scored two goals and for the rest of the 35, 40 minutes we started creating chances. I don’t think the sending-off helped us in many ways. We were getting a wee bit jittery near the end so the second goal was nice.”
Dillon, who was a team-mate of Sandaza’s at Tannadice before the Spanish striker’s departure in the summer of 2010, said: ”He volleyed me, but I have a certain amount of sympathy for him.
”It’s a little bit silly from his point of view. I wasn’t expecting the ref to pull out a red card because I didn’t see him do anything to me, although I felt (it) a bit.”
St Johnstone manager Steve Lomas had no complaints about the decision and was far from happy with Sandaza’s antics.
”Fran has kicked out, for whatever reason,” said Lomas. ”He has let his teammates down. I’m a big fan of Fran and will back him to the hilt but you just can’t kick out on a football pitch and he left us a mountain to climb.
”We as a club just can’t afford to play against a full-strength Dundee United with 10 men. I thought the lads that were left out there battled manfully and they (United) got the second when we were just throwing everything forward.
”It’s disappointing, we’re all gutted, but United are only two points ahead and it’s going to change week by week.
”It puts pressure on now to go and try to get wins away from home, which isn’t easy, especially at Motherwell, Celtic and Hearts. We are under no illusions but one thing I do know is our boys won’t throw the towel in.”