McInnes's St Johnstone are now second from bottom in the league

Derek McInnes preferred to focus on his St Johnstone team's inability to score than referee Brian Winter's failure to send off his defender Steven Anderson.

Winter showed Anderson two yellow cards but not a red during Dundee United's 1-0 home win over the Perth Saints.

"There wasn't a lot of clarity about it. I think the referee didn't think he had booked him," said the manager.

"I thought we had enough possession and good play to score and we didn't. That is something we have to look at."

In his post-match interview, McInnes was not keen to speak at length about the incident surrounding Winter and Anderson.

"It would have been a really hard sending-off. He has had two challenges; he was only on 25 minutes. It wasn't clear."

Of greater concern to McInnes was his team not converting pressure into goals.

"Up until Dundee United scored I thought we were the team that looked more likely to score. We had a lot of territory," he told BBC Scotland.

"We possibly didn't do enough when we were on top to go and win it.

"We have enough good players and enough goal threats to make sure that when we are on top in games we can put the ball in the back of the net."

After Terrors striker David Goodwillie had dinked the ball under Saints' Peter Enckelman for the opening goal after an hour of play, St Johnstone's chances of restoring parity were hampered by the frequency of stoppages for injuries in the final quarter of the match.

"The game got a bit untidy in the last 20 minutes or so," said the McDiarmid Park manager.

"It was a bit ill-tempered and it got a bit ragged towards the end, which didn't suit us.

It's still early stages yet and I believe this squad can do very well this year St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes

"There were a lot of contentious decisions but in a derby you are going to get that.

"David Goodwillie is a top talent and we had to work hard to try to keep him quiet today, yet he popped up with the winner."

A better goal difference than St Mirren's keeps St Johnstone from being the Scottish Premier League's bottom team, but McInnes has seen enough from his players to remain upbeat.

"It's still early stages yet and I believe this squad can do very well this year," he said at Tannadice.

"We have had three very tough away games this season. We were at Tynecastle and got a point, Rangers (a 2-1 defeat) and here.

"We have competed and played well in all three games.

"Hopefully next week, when we've got Hibs coming to our place, we can pick up three points."

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