Ross County 1-2 St Johnstone

St Johnstone opened their Scottish Premiership campaign with a hard-fought victory over Ross County in Dingwall.

Saints, who sold Stevie May to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, went ahead through Michael O'Halloran's strike.

And last season's Scottish Cup final goalscorer Steven MacLean headed the Perth side's second after the interval.

Debutant Jake Jervis nodded one back for County but Derek Adams' men were unable to find a leveller.

And with the three points, Saints made up for the disappointment of Europa League elimination at the hands of Spartak Trnava on Thursday.

Thursday's draw, which completed a 3-2 aggregate win for the Slovak side, featured May's last goal for St Johnstone and it was down to O'Halloran and MacLean to bear the goalscoring burden.

County's line-up featured five new players after a busy summer of recruitment at Victoria Park.

And they threatened early on with Filip Kiss, Yoann Arquin and Tim Dreesen having shots charged down before Jervis was denied by goalkeeper Alan Mannus.

At the other end, David Wotherspoon's free-kick flew narrowly over,

But before too long, the visitors had the lead as captain Dave Mackay's cross was swept home by O'Halloran.

O'Halloran despatched the ball into the net to give Saints the lead

The hosts were almost level when Carey ran at the Saints' defence and saw his shot brilliantly touched onto the crossbar by Mannus.

The second half was barely minutes old when St Johnstone scored their second.

Scott Brown fired a ball into the penalty area and MacLean was first to react with a diving header past Antonio Reguero.

However, County were thrown a lifeline when a deep cross from Arquin was met by Jervis, who climbed at the back post to head home.

Jervis then set up Kiss for a shot that was far too high.

Claims for a Ross County penalty were turned away following Tam Scobbie's challenge on Jervis and the home side kept pushing in the closing stages.

But St Johnstone saw out victory ahead of their home match against Celtic on Wednesday.