Saints took the lead early on. A ball in was knocked on by Stewart Kean to John Sutton, and the striker unleashed a powerful shot that Airdrie keeper Stephen Robertson did well to save. However, David van Zanten was on hand to tuck away the rebound (although it may just have bounced off him!) and Saints were in the lead.
Sadly it only lasted six minutes. A terrible header back from Kirk Broadfoot meant that Chris Smith was always going to struggle to beat the oncoming Bryan Prunty to the ball. He didn't, but brought down Prunty instead. Oops! Result? Penalty, which Stephen McKeown duly converted, although Smith got a hand to it.
Saints went on to dominate the rest of the half. Poor control from Sutton and van Zanten stopped them adding to the lead, whilst Kean was unable to take advantage of some atrocious Airdrie defending. Right on half time, Charlie Adam could have put Saints into the lead but he volleyed over from close range.
Saints started the second half in terrible fashion, with Airdrie dominating the early proceedings. Fortunately they didn't create anything clear cut, and fifteen minutes in Hugh Murray missed his second good chance of the week when he blazed over.
Then the fun started. Airdrie got a free kick, no complaints there. As the wall lined up, Stephen Docherty went to ground, possibly having been shoved by a Saints player. Whatever, he stayed there for a long time claiming to be injured, but no one on the Airdrie bench was actually rushing to help him. The wall lined up again, and this time Docherty fancied some revenge, so swung his elbow in someone's direction (possibly Adam's, possibly Mark Reilly).
Docherty obviously isn't a bright chap. Whilst the referee may struggle to work out which of the crowd of Saints players shoved him, he isn't going to struggle to work out which of the one Airdrie players caused trouble and wasted no time in sending Docherty off. The defender even ahd the cheek to complain!
When the free kick was finally taken, Alan McManus forced a good save from Smith.
So, Saints against ten men, easy pickings right? Wrong! Saints created sod all chances, despite at one point having four men up front. van Zanten went on a run and fired just wide, whilst Sutton was unlucky to see Robertson save another powerful shot.
So, a draw. Probably fair as we looked poor and failed to create much despite all our pressure. Well done Mr Underhill tonight though, didn't get too much wrong and far better than Dougie McDonald was on Saturday!