More of that later in the week. Today's performance was poor. Ricky Gillies, Mark Dempsie and Ryan McCay all started, the last two for the first times since last season. Indeed, it was the first minutes of first team football Mark Dempsie had played this season.
Saints lined up with a 4-4-2, but it was a bit odd, with both Andy Millen and Mark Reilly in midfield, whilst Gillies was wide right. Reilly ended up being replaced by Allan Russell when Saints were chasing the game, whilst Gillies and lappin were both subbed at the same time after terrible performances. Gillies has been awful this year, whilst Lappin has gone downhill and is maybe living on past successes.
The goal came from David van Zanten. Paddy Keogh crossed the ball into the middle, and van Zanten became the Christmas turkey when he ran the ball into the net. In fairness, the rest of the defence was posted missing, and there were Hamilton players waiting to finish it if he hadn't.
Saints had two cracking chances to get a goal, Stewart Kean having a heaer fantastically saved from David McEwan, whilst five minutes later McEwan saved Mark Crilly's free kick before somehow stopping the ball going in from the resulting scramble.
Apart from that very little happened. There were few clear cut chances. Hamilton were probably the better of the two sides, although a point would have been fair. Referee John Rowbotham was awful. Hamilton refused to retreat ten yards at free kicks, yet never threatened them with the book, and out of two skirmishes the only bookings were decided before fighting broke out. Any debatble decision went Hamilton's way.
But that's no excuse. Saints were poor; Mixu doesn't look fit whilst Gillies doesn't look interested. The defensive midfield pairing was never going to work. Time to resort to the back three methinks.
Gus needs to get things sorted for Wednesday's game with Clyde. Finishing the year with a win would be good stuff, and it would also put a wee bit more pressure on Clyde. Sort it out Gus!