The first half was pretty poor from both teams. There was one clear cut chance, which fell to St. Johnstone, and they took out. Some downright shocking defending from Kirk Broadfoot, Andy Millen and Kevin McGowne allowed Michael Moore to score. The move had started with three players failing to tackle the Fake Saints' Ryan Stevenson. When the ball got into the box, the Saints defence failed about three times to clear their lines, and Moore eventually poked the ball past Hinchcliffe. It was actually poor player form Hinchy as well, as he almost played keepy uppy with the ball in his hands before the ball went into the net.
There was one other chance in the first half, when Moore shot past the post from distance, but it wasn't clear cut.
The Saints performance was absolutely terrible. The defence was awful, no use picking any of the three out. The midfield was poor, with Gillies and O'Neill doing the square root of sod all. The players up front didn't do much, but they didn't have the service. All the time Millen booted the ball to nobody, and Simon Lappin just could not get the ball into the box. When Saints had a set piece, it was wasted with Gillies punting the ball to the back post. In fairness, I think he must be under orders to do this, as there is no way he can be that bad that often.
Apart from the poor first half performance of St. Mirren, the other half time talking point was the awful performance of referee Charlie Richmond. Wearing a lovely bright yellow ensemble, he made some truly bizarre decisions. St. Johnstone's Michael Moore got away with several dives, only eventually being booked after a foul. Kirk Broadfoot apparently "fouled" someone, when a St. Johnstone player launched himself in Kirk's direction then fell to the ground. Result? A booking for Gillies! David van Zanten and Sean Webb were booked for a scuffle, whilst a few St. Johnstone players managed to get away with deliberate handballs. Hmmm.
St. Mirren started the second half in far better shape than they had the first. drawing level only immediately. Lappin produced a poor cross, which missed everyone, eventually falling to O'neill. He was at the edge of the 6 yard box, with his back to goal, but still managed to turn and slip the ball past Allan McGregor. 1-1. Good stuff.
Both teams then had chances to get a second. Our defence looked extremely shaky whenever there was some pressure put on it, however the Fake Saints' defence didn't exactly look too stable either. At one point, Captain Chaos decided it would be a good idea to slice the ball onto the bar. Fool. Shortly afterwards, Lappin picked up another stupid booking for dissent. Idiot. Then the fun really started.
In my opinion, pulling a guys shirt to send him down when he's racing forward is not a great idea at the best of times. Doing it when you are booked is just stupidity. Incredibly, that is what St. Johnstone's Sean Webb did to Brian McGinty. A second booking was duly dished out, and Webb was on his way. No argument's there.
Despite having an extra man, the Saints couldn't really capitalise. There were a few chances, but nothing really clear cut. Jim Weir was lucky not to follow Webb down the tunnel when he brought down McGinty in a clear goal scoring position. He somehow escaped with a yellow. All throughout the second half, McGinty's pace was getting him into good positions and allowing him to make passes, but he wasn't really able to make it count.
In a bid to make the extra man count, John Baird replaced Gillies and Ryan McCay replaced Lappin. With just over five minutes to go, St. Johnstone's Eddie Malone brought down Ricky Gillies. With a picky ref, that was silly. When he was on a yellow card, it was even sillier. Bye bye Eddie. Two down, nine to go!
The Real Saints finally made the extra man pay minutes later. The ball wasn't properly cleared, and McCay launched it back into the box. Kirk Broadfoot flicked it on, and Baird sent a wonderful looping header just out of McGregor's reach for the winner. His first Saints goal, and one that looked set to win us a very welcome three points. Once again an official tried to spoil the fun. Baird ran over to the advertising boards, several metres from the fans, and was stopped from going any further by the linesman. Ah well.
There was still time for another moment of madness. With the Real Saints passing the ball around at the back to waste time (and scare the hell out of those of us who know that McGowne and Millen have dodgy passing), McCay found himself haced down by Michael Moore. Normally it would almost merit a straight red, with him already on a booking it was goodnight. Moore almost wanted to get sent off, and on his way off the pitch he shoved McGowne for no reason at all. Fortunately the referee noted the incident, so he could be in for even more trouble.
With only eight men to worry about, St. Mirren didn't have any problems and held on until full time, though Kirk almost fell over when he deliberately stood on the ball. After the whistle, Richmond had to be escorted from the pitch!
We probably didn't deserve the win, in fact a draw would have been fair. Once again we were poor in the first half, and the set pieces were terrible. However, if St. Johnstone want to run around like loonatics, diving and dissenting, that's their choice. The referee was poor at times, booking Millen for pointing out St. Johnstone were time wasting, but called all three red cards spot on. St. Johnstone could well be in for a wee fine. They were running around like mad men, it wasn't even as if they'd been wound up. Shocking. Bottom of the league and no points? Now that is funny :-)
Meanwhile, the Real Saints go second, two points behind Clyde. Next week it's Hamilton at Love Street, which should be a great game. If Baird starts we could have fun. The smallest player on the pitch scored with a header, that' cant happen very often.