Neil McCann described himself as embarrassed and ashamed by his players after suffering a first defeat as a manager to his Tayside rivals, but it was the Dundee manager’s behaviour that was coming under closest scrutiny following an afternoon that saw passions run high at Dens Park.

He had watched his side submit in the tamest fashion while contributing too their own downfall in conceding two goals in each half, the first an own goal from debutant Jordan Piggott soon after taking the field as a first half substitute and the others all featuring dreadful defending as Chris Kane scored one in each half, either side of setting one up for Blair Alston. However, the day’s main talking point was McCann's post-match reaction as the dug-outs emptied after the match and video evidence appeared to show his hand moving towards Saints reserve goal-keeper Zander Clark’s face.

“I am a bit fired up. I was controlled during the match, but I have gone over and words were exchanged,” was McCann’s explanation.

“One of their players had his hands on me and wouldn’t let go. I asked him to let go and he wouldn’t. It took me a wee bit of time to calm down and walk away from it, but when somebody puts their hands on you and you ask them to remove them and they don’t do it then it is hard just to back off of that.”

“I put my hands up to grab Zander to say get his hands off me. Then I retracted them because I had started to regain my composure.”

Asked directly if he had caught Clark in the face, he responded: “Caught him in the face... because I have gone to grab him. The video can show what you want but there was no slap, punch or nothing like that. I put my hand up to say let me go then I pulled it away because clearly that wasn’t the way to go.”

However, there was a hint of self-contradiction as he then sought to make a point about his team when adding: “Maybe if my players had shown the same type of fight today then I wouldn’t have got that performance.”

Asked about suggestions that there had been further trouble away from public view in the tunnel, he retorted: “If you weren’t in the tunnel then you don’t need to know then do you? No comment.”

McCann's opposite number Tommy Wright initially said he would let television pictures tell the story, but when pressed confirmed that Clarke believed he had been struck in the face.

“The video will tell the tale, but that’s what Zander’s telling me happened, so I think the TV evidence will back that up,” said the St Johnstone boss.

“I’m disappointed that it’s happened and they (Dundee) feel that we have done something wrong, because we have done nothing wrong. We don’t have a problem discipline wise in terms of staff and then there was a bit at the end that the TV cameras wouldn’t get,” he said, before adding: “No marks on me. A lot of shouting, lot of threats, but I’m a big boy, I can look after myself.

“I’ve seen the referee, they’re happy with our behaviour, they didn’t see the stuff at the end, but they’re happy with our behaviour through the 90 minutes, so we’ve got nothing to be worried about and, waiting for us at the end it’s like a throwback to when I played in my pub team.

“It’s disappointing and the thing about it is it’ll detract from what a great performance it was and what a dominant performance it was.”

That was sadly inevitable, but his description of their superiority was entirely accurate, the visitors’ greater urgency and combativeness having them in control well before the unfortunate Piggott opened the scoring after Alston had done well to get the ball into the danger area where Stevie Anderson knocked the ball into the path of Murray Davidson whose shot looked goal-bound even before the substitute re-directed it beyond his helpless goal-keeper.

Sloppy defending by Josh Meekings then let Stevie MacLean dispossess him at the byline, allowing Alston to square to the unattended Kane who knocked in his first of the season and when Kane was twice in two minutes allowed to get in behind the Dundee defence, he forced a good save from Elliott Parish the first time, only for the ball to rebound into the path of Alston who passed it into the empty net, before producing a finish of his own the second time to wrap things up.