The place was even more of a dump than usual. The Cowshed, which created such a great atmosphere at Renfrewshire derbies, was all closed due to redevelopment work to make it SPL compliant. 10 years on it still isn't all seated. Well done Hugh Scott.
As a result, the atmosphere was pretty rubbish, but there was a huge Saints support in Smellyville to see the league leaders strut their stuff after giving Dunfermline a good seeing to the previous week. It didn't take long for us to get into our stride, Iain Nicolson playing the ball across goal form Sergei Baltacha - supposedly wanted by Sheffield United - to tap home from close range.
We should have been cruising just before the half hour mark when Barry McLaughlin, still sporting a sore nose after being whacked by Andy Smith seven days earlier, received a swift elbow from Andy Millen (whatever happened to him?), who was sent off. We seemed to struggle with our man advantage but that problem resolved itself a few minutes later when Trigger was sent off after being fouled by Stephen Whalen. Good to see the standard of officiating in Scotland hasn't improved over the last decade.
The game of 10-a-side suited Saints and a few minutes later they doubled their lead, the Basher/Yards combination once again doing its stuff when the latter flicked the ball on for the latter to slam home. Basher was replaced by Tom Brown almost instantly due to injury before Saints grabbed their third, Yards scoring what turned out to be the 3,000th goal in SFL history!
Of course, as this is Saints, a 3-0 lead at half time doesn't necessarily guarantee victory. Just after half time Harry Curran pulled one back before Yards missed a penalty. This couldn't end well.
Fortunately, the nerves were settled by one of the finest goals Cappielow will ever see thanks to the efforts of defender Scott Walker. After clearing a corner to Yards, he collected the ball again at the half way line before passing it to Shuggy Murray. Incredibly, the bald centre half continued his bombing run forward and stopped to head home Shuggy's cross! A fantastic goal, although Scotsport only showed half of it - and got Walker's name wrong.
After that we were in cruise control, with Tommy Turner and Ludovic Roy taking the micky at times. With Dunfermline dropping more points, we were now miles ahead at the top of the table ahead of a Friday night trip to Airdrie.