The defeat leaves us sitting seventh in the table with tough trips to Aberdeen and Motherwell coming up. This was a game we should have been looking to take at least a point from and to lose it is inexcusable. Caley Thistle were no great shakes but we were worse and rarely threatened the opposition goal. Each time we fell behind there was no cavalry charge and it was a rather limp way to suffer a defeat.
The weird change of system didn't help, neither did Graham Carey once again being left on the bench. Marc McAusland had a poor display at the back, Illias Haddad wasn't much better while Nigel Hasselbaink was poor up front. Gary Teale did little other than a few decent corners, while Paul McGowan never really got into his stride. It was a reminder of many of last season's performances and hopefully this does not set a trend for the coming months.
In recent weeks it has been relatively straightforward trying to suss out the Saints team. Not today! After last week you'd have thought Thompson and Carey would start, but you'd only be half right. Thompson did indeed start, but Carey was left kicking his heels on the bench. Even more bizarrely, David van Zanten was the only man dropped with Illias Haddad starting. For some reason we'd opted to completely change the system to a 3-1-4-2 with Haddad the man sitting in front of the defence. Hmmm. Caley Thistle had old pal Ross Tokely starting, with Gregory Tade surprisingly on the bench - his pace perhaps being left in reserve for later. Not that we could relax with Richie Foran, Johnny Hayes and a suspension free Greg Tansey all starting.
We nearly had something to cheer when Teale played in Hasselbaink, but he duffed his shot into the stand. A few minutes later Tokely claimed he'd been shoved by Hasselbaink (think about the difference in sizes) which caused the ball to spin loose after Ryan Esson failed to gather. Hasselbaink wasn't sure whether to cross or shoot so tried a combination of the two that won us a corner - and we should have been in front when Lee Mair knocked it across to Thompson, but he somehow managed to lift the ball over the bar from the edge of the six yard box. A golden opportunity gone.
Fortunately, we soon created another one - unfortunately, it was for Caley Thistle. In a move reminiscent of the days of Tommy Turner we got the ball near Caley Thistle's corner flag and proceeded to work it back to Samson in double quick time - despite no visiting player touching it. Samson then played it to McAusland who took too long weighing up his options before trying to switch the ball across to Goodwin. He almost got there, but Hayes was always favourite to win the race. Not only did he do that, he then picked out Andrew Shinnie to slot the ball past Samson from the edge of the box. It is about time our players and our manager that while the passing stuff is nice, a desire to do it at all costs is creating more problems for ourselves than the opposition.
We were almost two behind a few minutes later when Goodwin nodded Foran's goalbound header off the line as we looked like collapsing for the second week running. Bizarrely, Caley Thistle decided to start the time wasting before we'd even reached 20 minutes - not that they had anything to worry about as we were having a shocker. Tansey was next to try his luck following a well worked free-kick routine, his long range effort looking destined for the top corner before someone diverted it behind.
You'd have thought we might have responded to going behind, especially as we'd had two decent chances before conceding, but there was absolutely nothing. Esson could have nipped off to Braehead to do some Christmas shopping and not caused his team any problems and we appeared to be ill at ease with the change of system, no one really knowing where they were supposed to be playing. Caley Thistle probably considered themselves unlucky not to be further ahead and Tansey spurned a great chance when he shot wide from close range.
Remember that time wasting I mentioned? Well, that can be the only reason for the two minutes of added time and fans of "My Name is Earl" should read on for some classic karmic retribution. A mis-hit cross from Jeroen Tesselaar had to be tipped over by Esson before it dipped under the bar, coming at the expense of a corner. Teale's delivery was perfect and Thompson peeled away at the back post to nod home the equaliser. Deserved? Definitely not - but a handy lesson for Caley Thistle about the dangers of time wasting.
McAusland had had a poor first half so if any defender was going to be hooked at the break it would be him, right? Wrong! For some reason, Lee Mair was the man going off, with David Barron taking his place. Hopefully we would settle down a bit, although Samson had to react quickly to grab and hold a Billy McKay header. Tesselaar then won himself a few more fans by skinning Tokely and cutting the ball back for Thompson, whose low drive was palmed away by Esson. The Caley Thistle keeper was getting a bit more to do now and had to turn a Teale free-kick over the bar - although it was a bit of an optimistic effort.
Tokely endeared himself even more to the home support by going down like a big girl aft wee clash with Thompson. The striker may have caught him with his elbow, but it was accidental and the lack of blood, or any sort of card for Thompson, suggested that. Tokely then got his own back by nudging Thompson into the boards as they slid in for the ball, but as the big striker isn't a jessie he got back up.
That livened up a fairly dull half - and I'd have been quite happy with it staying dull rather than Caley Thistle scoring midway through it. Tansey shaped to shoot but instead passed to David Davis, who then kicked it on to Hayes. At 20 yards out he didn't need asking twice, meeting it brilliantly and sending a fine, low shot arcing into the bottom corner. We had been beginning to struggle, the defending getting a little too last gasp for my liking, but hadn't really been in much danger.
We tried to fix that after going behind when Haddad made a complete mess of dealing with a ball over the top, letting it bounce into a gap between McKay and Samson. After hesitating, Samson charged out and slid in, taking the ball, then taking McKay, then continuing. The grounded McKay just had to hit the target to finish things off but couldn't do that from his position on the ground - although he wasn't far away. A few minutes later we finally had a change, the disappointing teal and ineffective Hasselbaink being replaced by Jon McShane and Graham Carey. Having clearly not learned their earlier lesson, Caley Thistle started time wasting again.
Not that it mattered. Aside from the start and end of each half we hadn't looked like scoring, so ironically time wasting only left us more time to score at the end of games. We almost did it too, Thompson getting up to meet a Goodwin free-kick but this time Esson kept it out. However, it would have been completely undeserved after a poor performance and there can be no complaints that we ended up with nothing.
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