Sadly, one thing that doesn't change is the poor standards of refereeing. Whilst Hugh Murray, Kevin McGowne and David van Zanten all deserved the bookings they picked up, several similar offences from both sides did not receive the same punishment. Steven Naismith may be a star in the making, but he was poor today and should have been booked long before second half stoppage time.
Richard Brittain came in for his first start, replacing the injured Garry Brady, whilst Craig Molloy replaced Andy Millen. Iain Anderson made it as far as the bench for the first time all season, whilst former Saints Charlie Adam, Mark Reilly, Derek Scrimgour, Tony Fitzpatrick and Gerry Baker could all be found in the stand, as could Alan Combe who was with current employers Kilmarnock.
It was clear to see from the first ten minutes why Kilmarnock will easily finish in the top six this season as they could have been 4-0 up. Bullock had to tip a mishit Gordon Greer cross over the barr, then block a David Fernandez shot. He then curled one over before Naismith headed a Danny Invincible (what a great name) cross wide.
Things didn't improve, although Bullock's header away caused some amusement. Stewart Kean's shot also provided some amusement to the Kilmarnock fans as it was spectacuarly bad. Invincible was soon causing more problems, forcing Bullock into another save.
Saints were getting out of their own half at times, but weren't doing much with the ball. Lots of nice passing, but no end product and too often possession was given away extremely cheaply and no clear cut chances could be made.
Unfortunately, the visitors were creating enough decent chances for two teams and continued to do so after the break, Invincible and Naismith shooting wide. Then, finally, Kilmarnock's Graeme Smith had to make a save when Kean headed straight at him. Well, it was a start!
A Kilmarnock player finally picked up a booking for a barge on Bullock, before John Sutton woke up and fired a shot that Smith spilled, but sadly it was cleared.
Kilmarnock scored just after the hour mark, but fortunately the linesman decided that Wright's header hadn't crossed the line before Millen cleared it. To this expert (ahem) it clearly had. Ten minutes later, however, they did score, when Greer's shot/pass thing found Fernandez, who slotted the ball between Bullock and the goal and Kirk Broadfoot couldn't stop himself running the ball into the net. Oops. Probably just as well, as if he hadn't a penalty would have been given for a McGowne foul on Gary Wales.
Ten minutes later there could have been another own goal, when Andy Millen tried to walk a tame shot from Colin Nish into the net before deciding that putting it out for a corner might not be such a bad idea after all. In the dying minutes, Simon Lappin's free kick was deflected over before sub Mark Corcoran crossed for fellow sub Billy Mehmet, only for the former Dunfermline man to head into Smith's arms.
The result was fair, although he visitors could easily have won by more. What's worring is that we created very little. What's also worrying is that our next two home games are Hibs and Rangers, which doesn't present much chance for points!