For the most part it was good cheer all round at Dens Park last night as both managers expressed satisfaction with their team’s end of year efforts but it was the hosts who were in more celebratory mood since no first footer could have been more generous than their neighbours proved to be.

For Paul Hartley the second half of 2016 had always looked likely to be much tougher than the first following the departure of prize assets Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings, yet the rebuilding work had gone sufficiently well that they were unbeaten at home in more than two months before this match and this three goal victory means they have now taken 13 points from a possible 15 at Dens since that defeat to Partick Thistle in October, a run that means they are now relatively cushioned from the foot of the table.

“It’s a nice way to finish off 2016,” said the Dundee manager. “It’s not been easy since the start of the season, we know that, but if we can manage performances like that we’ll start climbing.”

Yet as painful as it clearly was to lose this derby encounter by such a margin, his side having contributed to that with a series of crucial mistakes, Tommy Wright, his St Johnstone counterpart, was far from distraught.

“It’s probably as well as we’ve played with the ball away from home. We had a lot of opportunities but our final ball and our decision making at times let us down,” he reckoned.

“I’m not going to be too hard on them because it was a good performance and they kept going right to the end as well, so we’ll take it on the chin and we’ll move on.”

The half-time scoreline was tough on a St Johnstone side that contributed a great deal to an entertaining first half, having the better of the first half hour or so. However Dundee had looked more dangerous when they did get forward and their opening goal was one of high quality.

The ever energetic Paul McGowan sparked the move sliding a perfectly weighted ball in behind Brian Easton for Marcus Haber to run onto whose first time cross from the right was met by Faissal El Bakhtaoui ahead of the near post and he too struck it perfectly first time, drilling the ball between Zander Clark’s legs.

Their second represented double punishment for Paul Paton’s reckless challenge on Mark O’Hara, the former Dundee United captain picking up a yellow card before Paul McGowan’s free kick, from just inside the St Johnstone half on the right, was chested by Haber into the path of Kostadin Gadzhalov who had to wait and wait for the bouncing ball to drop but showed a striker’s composure in doing so before volleying it high and powerfully past Clark.

Having come from two down themselves against Hearts the previous week Dundee knew the job had not been completed, but they wrapped it up in 57 minutes when O’Hara dispossessed Paton, delivered the ball to Hateley on the right who got close to the bye-line before firing the ball low towards goal where Steven Anderson, stretching to get to the ball ahead of Haber, did so but succeeded only in deflecting it into his own goal.

Dundee: Bain, Kerr, Etxabeguren, Gadzhalov, Holt, Hateley, McGowan, O’Hara (Ross 74), F El Bakhatoui (Williams 88), M Haber, C Wighton

Scorers: El Bakhtaoui (14), Gadzhalov (41), Anderson o.g.(57)

St Johnstone: Clark, Foster, Shaughnessy, Anderson, Easton, Alston, Paton (Wotherspoon 62), Davidson, Craig (Kane 45), Swanson, McLean (Cummins 72)

Referee: D Robertson

Attendance: 6492