It was a reasonable Saints performance without being anything special and required some frantic defending at time. It's good to get off the mark, but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure we are regularly picking up points and wins.
Jim Hamilton was the surprise choice to partner Billy Mehmet up front in a strikeforce that could hardly be classed as mobile, while Tonet came in for Tom Brighton and Scott Cuthbert debuted alongside John Potter. Gary Mason was also fit again, but Andy Dorman had to make do with a place on the bench. Steven Robb and Craig Dargo both missed out once again - hopefully not a sign of things to come!
The visitors seemed to have the ioebubg quarter of an hour and could have gone in front thanks to some fine work on the right by David Fernandez, but his cross was headed wide by Conor Sammon. At the other end Hamilton nearly turned provider when he played the ball into Stephen O'Donnell's path, but the midfielder let fly too early and the ball ended up going well over.
Mehdi Taouil had a decent chance for Kilmarnock when a clearance fell nicely to him, but his shot was comfortably saved by Saints keeper Mark Howard.
Things were finally beginning to liven up shortly before half time as Killie pushed forward more and more, with Garry Hay shooting not far wide before some awful Saints defending allowed Sammon to sneak in and lift the ball over Howard, only for John Potter to head it away.
Saints should have taken the lead early in the second half, O'Donnell and Jack Ross combined well to let the latter get a cross in for Hamilton, only for the big striker's header to hit the bar. Hamilton had another decent chance from an O'Donnell cross, but had to play it across goal due to the tight angle and there were unfortunately no takers. As the game progressed, there was no sign of O'Donnell's shooting getting any better as he fired another effort well over.
If Saints shooting was poor, Kilmarnock's was anything but as Howard was called into action twice in the space of a minute. A poor header from Ross allowed Sammon to have a shot that was blocked and the rebound fell to Craig Bryson, whose effort was turned behind by Howard. The corner wasn't properly clear and another poor header, this time from Potter, allowed Invincible to have a shot that was tipped behind.
Potter clearly hadn't learned as he gave the ball away once again soon after and allowed Taouil to get a cross in, but once again Howard came to the rescue when he saved Sammon's header. Sadly, all Saints could do to make Combe work at the other end was a tame shot from Mehmet that caused few problems.
After some fine saves, Howard made what was almost a costly error. His weak punch from a freekick only went as far as Taouil and the Algerian's shot went over his head before hitting the bar and falling for a relieved keeper to grab. Saints nearly managed a late winner against Killie for the second game in a row when Hamilton got his head to Wyness cross, but Combe wasn't troubled by the header. O'Donnell also went close before the whistle, his run taking him to the edge of the box before his shot was saved by Combe.
At times, we looked almost as poor as towards the end of last season. At other times, we produced some nice stuff. The team selection was a little odd, as were the substitutions, but it's early days. Hopefully, once we get some players back we'll start getting some wins under our belt.