From booking Saint's player/assistant Andy Millen inside the first few minutes for winning the ball, to letting Airdrie's number three away with assault in the last minute, Brines was awful. Allan Gow dived several times yet didn't get booked, and Airdrie should have had, at most, ten men on the park at the end. Any time Saints went near a United player they went down, yet Millen and Kirk Broadfoot ended up being booked for nothing. Broadfoot was fouled in the box, but did we get a penalty? Did we hell!
It wasn't all against Saints though. Captain Kevin McGowne got away with one foul, whilst several times throw in decisions were given the wrong way.
As for the game itself it was a pretty poor affair. Saints went close after a few minutes when John O'Neill forced the United keeper into a great save with a good header. Apart from that, Saints created very little. The closest we went to scoring was a Ryan McCay drive which went just over the bar.
Airdrie were better, but didn't create many clear cut chances. The Saints defence was all over the place, with McGowne, Broadfoot and Millen all being culprits at some stage. McCay was also poor. In fact, most of the team were pretty poor, and we created very little up front. Until the 81st minute.
McCay produced a great ball which Brian McGinty (finally dropped to the bench but on as a substitute) got on to. After ripping the mickey out of an Airdrie defender, he played a rather interesting ball across the six yard box. Was it a pass, was it a shot? We'll never know. It came to Stewart Kean, bounced off him and somehow into the net. It was Keano's first league goal for Saints, and an absolutely priceless one.
Brines tried his hardest to get Airdrie a point, failing to send off the number 3 for an assault on McCay and letting their players away with murder, but Saints held on for their first win since November. The bad run started, and ended, against Airdrie.
A draw would have been fair, but as we were up against 12 men and Airdrie dived about all over the place this was a great result.
The SFA must do something about the standard of referees we are getting, as Brines was a disgrace, a perfect example of a ref who thinks the fans are there to see him.
We're off to Queen of the South next week, and we're now back up to fourth. maybe things aren't as bad as they seemed.
It wasn't all against Saints though. Captain Kevin McGowne got away with one foul, whilst several times throw in decisions were given the wrong way.
As for the game itself it was a pretty poor affair. Saints went close after a few minutes when John O'Neill forced the United keeper into a great save with a good header. Apart from that, Saints created very little. The closest we went to scoring was a Ryan McCay drive which went just over the bar.
Airdrie were better, but didn't create many clear cut chances. The Saints defence was all over the place, with McGowne, Broadfoot and Millen all being culprits at some stage. McCay was also poor. In fact, most of the team were pretty poor, and we created very little up front. Until the 81st minute.
McCay produced a great ball which Brian McGinty (finally dropped to the bench but on as a substitute) got on to. After ripping the mickey out of an Airdrie defender, he played a rather interesting ball across the six yard box. Was it a pass, was it a shot? We'll never know. It came to Stewart Kean, bounced off him and somehow into the net. It was Keano's first league goal for Saints, and an absolutely priceless one.
Brines tried his hardest to get Airdrie a point, failing to send off the number 3 for an assault on McCay and letting their players away with murder, but Saints held on for their first win since November. The bad run started, and ended, against Airdrie.
A draw would have been fair, but as we were up against 12 men and Airdrie dived about all over the place this was a great result.
The SFA must do something about the standard of referees we are getting, as Brines was a disgrace, a perfect example of a ref who thinks the fans are there to see him.
We're off to Queen of the South next week, and we're now back up to fourth. maybe things aren't as bad as they seemed.