I wrote in the preview that I'd be happy to see Stevie Woods, Andy Millen, Brian McGinty and Kevin McGowne all dropped, but that I didn't think it was likely. Well, Gus MacPherson finally decided Woods had had his chance and dropped him, bringing back the far superior Craig Hinchcliffe. He also realised that McGowne is useless and replaced him with Ricky Gillies, though obviously he didn't play in defence!
The conditions at Love Street were terrible, with rain most of the time and awful wind. This would explain why our free kicks were naff, because they are always perfect, and also why some of the kicking from both goalkeepers was dodgy. The home sides defence, knowing Hinchy's kicking is poor, decided to pass it back to him a lot of the time. Aye, nice one lads.
Both teams created little in the first half. The St. Mirren defence looked much more solid with Hinchy and Broadfoot in it. Up front it was the same old story. With no strikers, and McGinty no where as usual, when we did get up field we did sod all. Gillies had a good shot which Kevin Cuthbert did well to save, and McGinty didn't put away the rebound. We were playing three up front, and when a good ball was missed by Gillies, where was McGinty for the tap in? God knows.
St. Johnstone had chances, with Chris McGroarty playing poorly at the back, although he was penalised for some diving from the young ned that is Keigan Parker. Somehow he escaped with a booking. Hinchy had to pull off some good saves at half time, and I doubt Woods would have managed them.
With half time looming, St. Mirren had a good chance to take the lead only for John O'Neill to thump it. The St. Johnstone defence cleared it, but only as far as Hugh Murray who absolutely hammered it past Cuthbert from outside the box and into the net. A cracking goal, and our first goal after three blanks. The last goal was at home against Falkirk in the first half, and who got it that day? Shuggy Murray. A great strike, now if only our strikers would do this a bit more.
Half time then, and 1-0 to the home side.
The second half was more of the same, thanks to the conditions. Hinchy had to make two cracking saves within the space of a few minutes, including pushing a Simon Donnelly shot onto the bar.
St. Mirren then went for the goal of the season, and quite possibly one of the finest Saints goals at Love Street in ages. Gillies, who was the man left up at a St. Johnstone corner, raced onto a clearance and released Lappin. Lappin then played a stunning ball back to Gillies (made even more brilliant due to the conditions), who found himself space and was unlucky to miss the target.
Sadly, it wasn't long until the away side had an equaliser, a good move resulting in their right back leaving Hinchy no chance as he tucked it away. Both sides had chances to win the game, including a last minute header from Broadfoot which hit the bar, but it was probably a fair result.
St. Johnstone didn't look like promotion material whilst we didn't look like relegation material. Murray had an outstanding game, and I've given up with the ratings system after one game ;-)
This point sets us up for the must win game against Brechin on Saturday. Now, if we could only get Gus to drop McGinty and Millen....