St Johnstone caught the Spiders in their web last night as the Saints strolled into the last eight of the Scottish Communities League Cup.
A double from Steven MacLean, on his first start, and one apiece from Murray Davidson and sub Liam Craig was more than enough to get past Third Division side Queen’s Park at McDiarmid, and now the Perth men will await the quarter-final draw with relish.
The men from Hampden did grab a goal for themselves through Michael Keenan, but it wasn’t their night and they finished with 10 men after Andrew Robertson was given a straight red card for a lunge at Gary Miller on 74 minutes.
Satisfied Saints boss Steve Lomas said: ”The players showed a good mentality tonight and there were a lot of pluses for us. I was pleased for Steven as he has been a goal scorer all his life, is an experienced player who has been at a good level and we are happy to have him.”
Saints made seven changes to the line-up that kicked off against Ross County in the SPL on Saturday. In came Jonny Tuffey, Tom Scobbie, Kevin Moon, David McCracken, Murray Davidson, David Robertson and MacLean.
The match was seven minutes old when Saints missed an absolute sitter.
MacLean was the guilty man, sending what should have been a tap-in over the bar from three yards after being teed up by Robertson.
It was a real shocker and Spiders keeper Neil Parry couldn’t believe his luck.
MacLean made amends on 17 minutes, however, when he chipped another Robertson cross over Parry’s head from close-range to put Saints 1-0 up with his first goal for the club.
The visitors were back level on the half-hour mark thanks to a spectacular strike from Michael Keenan from 40 yards.
MacLean missed another one from close range when he couldn’t convert a Gregory Tade cross on 36 minutes.
It was all about MacLean, and Saints were back in front just four minutes later when a through ball from Davidson was steered past Parry from 14 yards by the front man for his second of the night.
With 10 minutes of the second half gone, Nigel Hasselbaink came within an inch of making it 3-1 when he sent a low shot just past the far post then Steven Anderson hit the bar with a header.
The Spiders went a man down on 74 minutes when Robertson got his marching orders for a tackle on Miller.
Just to rub it in, Saints made it 3-1 just three minutes later when Davidson side-footed home from the edge of the box after being set up by Tade.
Craig, who had come off the bench to replace Hasselbaink, then finished things off with a sweet volley with five minutes left on the clock.