www.bcfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10327~2863717,00.html
REPORT: ST JOHNSTONE 2-1 CITY
Posted on: Sat 28 Jul 2012
St Johnstone 2-1 Bristol City
Mark Perrow reports from McDiarmid Park
City's preparations for the new season began with defeat on Derek McInnes' return to McDiarmid Park.
A first-half brace from trialist Rowan Vine was enough to ensure victory for the hosts, as Jon Stead's header just before the interval proved no more than a consolation goal.
The City boss handed debuts to Greg Cunningham at left-back and Jody Morris, also a former home favourite in Perth, in an otherwise familiar line-up.
Already up to speed with competitive action after recent Europa League qualifying excursions, St Johnstone were quick to show their superior sharpness with an opening goal inside two minutes through Vine.
The former Queens Park Rangers, Birmingham City and Luton Town striker exchanged passes with Sean Higgins and neatly sidefooted the ball low across Dean Gerken.
City should have responded soon after through Brett Pitman, but the striker failed to convert Yannick Bolasie's whipped-in cross from inside the six-yard box.
In a lively opening, Morris also had a sight of goal only to see his driven 20-yarder well blocked, before Gerken was forced to parry a close-range effort from Keammar Daley at the other end.
The first-half eventually descended into a more predictable pre-season affair, but Stead gave home keeper Jonny Tuffey something to think about with a looping header from Martyn Woolford's inswinging cross, before Vine doubled his tally ten minutes from the break.
A long ball was not dealt with inside the City box by Lewin Nyatanga and the striker clinically finished on the half-volley into the bottom corner.
City's biggest threat had been the pace and delivery of Bolasie on the right flank, and the former Plymouth Argyle winger provided Stead with the opportunity to half the arrears on the stroke of the interval with a simple header past Tuffey.
Expected wholesale changes at the interval did not come, as McInnes stuck with the same personnel. But Daley, another trialist, soon set about restoring the Saints' two-goal advantage with a jinking run down the right, cutting inside Cunningham and finding the base of the near post.
Morris' debut lasted an hour before he was replaced by Neil Kilkenny in the first of many City changes. Stephen Pearson, James Wilson, Ryan Taylor, Bobby Reid and Aaron Amadi-Holloway were also introduced throughout the course of the second period, while McInnes also handed a debut to winger Paul Anderson in place of the impressive Bolasie.
Kilkenny's quick thinking might have set up an equaliser for Pitman, but Tuffey did well to divert the striker's low shot wide of the post from the Australian's short free kick.
City were growing in threat as the game wore on. Pearson led an incisive break ten minutes from time, only for Pitman's downward header from Richard Foster's cross bounced up and over the crossbar.
Another Foster cross provided substitute Taylor with a similar chance, but the scorer of City's last competitive goal was denied by an excellent Tuffey save high to his right, as the keeper tipped the ball on to the underside of the bar and away to safety to condemn McInnes and co. to defeat.
www.bcfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10327~2863717,00.html
