There can be few complaints at Falkirk getting a point. They dominated the closing stages of the match and would have deservedly felt aggrieved if they left St. Mirren Park with nothing. It's rather worrying that the bottom club, with just one league win to their credit this season, were able to play like that. On the other hand, we were pretty poor, offered little and, apart from an initial burst, didn't do much to extend our lead.
It was a historic day for Hugh Murray as he appeared in his 32nd league game for the club, breaking Tony Fitzpatrick's record. Stephen O'Donnell was finally given the start he deserves, with Steven Thomson surprisingly nit even on the bench. John Potter partner Chris Innes at the back and Pedro Moutinho, a regular scorer against us, started up front for Falkirk.
Some slack defending allowed Scott Arfield to have an early shot, but fortunately for Saints he shot pretty much straight at Paul Gallacher. To say we were poor at the back in the first 15 minutes or so would be an understatement, as we continually gave away possession and looked increasingly fragile. Yet it was our players who had the better of the chances, Michael Higdon and Stephen O'Donnell both being thwarted by Robert Olejnik after a couple of close range efforts.
It was a relatively dull affair with defenders seeming to win the battle, even if ours did look rather shaky. Falkirk began to threaten a bit more as the half drew to a close, Toufix Zerera and Carl Finnigan both seeing their shots saved by Gallacher. To wake us all up John Potter and Finnigan had a wee scuffle just before half time that threatened to turn into a full scale before petering out.
The second half threatened to be more of the same before Higdon scored arguably the best goal the new ground has seen so far. Mehmet flicked the ball on for him perfectly, and fully 35 yards out he lashed a volley goalbound that Olejnik tipped onto the bar, before it bounced down over the line and back up into the roof of the net. Where the goal had come from was anyone's guess, but it was a more than welcome way to warm up an awful game - especially with the scorer being an ex Bairn.
We seemed to take a boost from our unlikely lead and went looking to kill the game off, although failed to create anything clear cut. Falkirk, perhaps in shock at seeing Higdon produce a strike of such quality, took a while to react, with Arfield missing the goal completely with a couple of decent chances. The Saints defence had to be reshuffled when Jack Ross went off, with Lee Mair coming on. Mair and David Barron then switched sides - so why not put Mo Camara on at left back (aside from the obvious reason)?!?
It looked as if we'd wrapped things up with 20 minutes left when the Mehmet and Higdon partnership saw the latter scramble in another goal, but unfortunately it was ruled out for a handball by the striker. It was Moutinho's turn to suffer with 12 minutes left when he nicked the ball from Gallacher as he was bouncing it before stroking it home, but it was rightly ruled out. Finnigan and Lee Bullen both went close to grabbing the equaliser before it finally arrived in the 88th minute, Moutinho playing the ball through for Finnigan to slide in and score.
There was still time for Falkirk to grab a winner, but fortunately it didn't come. Quite simply not good enough from us against one of the few teams below us and we must do better if we are to avoid yet another relegation battle.