Date	Saturday, 30 April 2016
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Ross County 0:1 Saint Johnstone
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	3,329
Referee	Stephen Finnie
Comments	Match Report Report by Martin Dowden for the BBC. Premiership Top Six Ross County 0 Saint Johnstone 1 St Johnstone moved clear in fourth place in the Premiership with Steven MacLean's second half tap-in enough to earn victory at Ross County. Danny Swanson moments earlier wasted a great chance after Andrew Davies blundered, hitting the side netting. It was Swanson's corner though, met by Joe Shaughnessy, which fell perfectly for MacLean to slot home from inside the six-yard box. Davies went close late on with a header that might have stolen a point. With Motherwell facing a tough trip to Aberdeen, both sides knew a positive result could move them into fourth. Neither side seemed particularly motivated by that in the opening exchanges in a flat encounter offering little excitement. Swanson was first to threaten when he stole possession from Marcus Fraser and released Graham Cummins into the box on the right-hand side. The big striker had to pause slightly waiting for the ball to arrive, which gave Paul Quinn the chance to slide in and superbly block his shot with goalkeeper Scott Fox looking exposed. Play was pedestrian with a final ball or spark of energy lacking, particularly from the home side who seemed unusually off the pace. Saints midfielder Chris Millar's frustrating injury woes continued when he had to hobble off before half-time, Scott Brown replacing him. Liam Craig tried to change the complexion of the game with a powerful strike from distance but a slight deflection did not take it away from Fox's grasp. A rare, but wonderful piece of invention allowed Swanson to escape two defenders but his clipped cross was nodded away just as the crowd thought a chance was on. County manager Jim McIntyre could not have been happy with what he was watching and introduced Martin Woods in place of Ian McShane. It had little effect. Liam Boyce began to emerge in the game with two headers as County looked to get balls in from wide areas but nothing to overly stretch Zander Clark in goal. However, a disastrous decision from Davies nearly handed St Johnstone the opener. The defender had the chance to clear but bizarrely tried to shepherd the ball back to Fox. Cummins slid in, got the ball across and Swanson, with the goal gaping, was off target. A great chance wasted. The goal arrived moments later from Swanson's corner, which was nodded down by Shaughnessy to MacLean, who did not hesitate to slot home. The home side tried to respond when Jonathan Franks cut inside and fired a left-foot shot but Clark did well to hold with attackers closing in. Davies then had a free header which he sent off target before Wotherspoon denied County's Brian Graham with a block. But the hosts simply did not offer enough with Tommy Wright's side now in control of the chase to finish fourth. Manager Tommy Wright is sure St Johnstone can hang on to fourth place in the Premiership after picking up a 1-0 win at Ross County. Steven MacLean's second half finish deservedly earned three points and means the visitors leapfrog Motherwell, who lost to Aberdeen. "It's a 38 game league," Wright told BBC Scotland. "We try and prepare them for the whole season and the last few seasons we've tended to finish strong." Saints have won both matches since the Premiership split in half for the final run in and visit Motherwell next weekend. "Last season after the spilt we were unbeaten and that's difficult to do as you're playing against the sides that have been at the right end of the table all season," added Wright. "We have a tough game coming up against Motherwell but we're in a nice position at the minute with three games to go. "We knew it would take a good performance coming up here, particularly with the result Ross County got last week at Celtic "Throughout the 90 minutes we controlled quite a huge chunk of that and never looked in any real danger. "We passed the ball well, defended well, got the goal at the right time and had not too many problems to deal with so I'm a happy manager." The only disappointment for Wright was another injury to Chris Millar who had to be replaced before half-time after suffering a calf injury. "Chris has a problem," explained Wright. "It's not the problem that's hampered him this season, it's a calf problem as well. "It doesn't look too serious so hopefully he'll get back for a couple of the games we've got left." Ross County manager Jim McIntyre saw his hopes of finishing fourth severely dented and was in no mood to gloss over an abject performance from his side. "We were really poor," he said. "I would put that up there as the poorest performance this season. "It looked as if we had nothing to play for. St Johnstone looked as thought they wanted it more. "It was a scrappy goal to lose the match but the best team won. "For the first time this season we didn't have a period in the game where you thought 'we're going to get a goal here'. "We just had most of the players off the pace of the game, it's as simple as that. We didn't start well and we didn't recover from that. "We've got professional pride and placing money to play for and that's still achievable but it's going to take a hell of a lot better performance than what we saw today."
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	1: Scott Fox, 2: Marcus Fraser, 7: Michael Gardyne, 8: Ian McShane, 10: Liam Boyce, 15: Andrew Davies, 17: Jonathan Franks, 18: Stewart Murdoch, 23: Alex Schalk, 36: Jackson Irvine, 43: Paul Quinn 1
Bench	21: Gary Woods, 6: Christopher Robertson, 9: Brian Graham, 19: Tony Dingwall, 24: Raffaele De Vita, 25: David Goodwillie, 42: Martin Woods
Saint Johnstone
Manager	Tommy Wright
Starting 11	Alexander Clark, Thomas Scobbie, Steven Anderson, Joseph Shaughnessy 1, Darnell Fisher, Christopher Millar, David Wotherspoon, Daniel Swanson, Graham Cummins, Steven MacLean 1, Liam Craig 1
Bench	Alan Mannus, James Michael Doyle, John Sutton, Scott Brown, Brian Easton, Christopher Kane, Plamen Krachunov