The much slated City Park provided few problems, both from a playing and spectating point of view. It wasn't too bumpy, just narrow and with a slope. There didn't seem to be any incidents in the crowd, although it seems the secret security feature on the tickets is so secret only specially trained stewards can spot it. Ahem.
So we can't blame the surface, can we blame the officials? Not really. We had the usual duff refereeing that we are used to, and the linesmen flagging when players weren't offside, but we didn't really have any stone wall penalty claims turned down.
Nope, the only reason we failed to win because we were terrible. Our players seemed to think we just needed to turn up to win. They always seemed to want an extra pass or an extra touch. We had few shots on goal, and one we did have from Charlie Adam was spilled by the keeper. This should have signalled to the players to shoot on site, but they decided against it.
No point picking players out, as everyone was rotten, with some players slightly less rotten than others.
It could have been worse. Spartans had chances, boy did they have chances. After shooting down the slope in the first half, you'd have expected them to tire going uphill. Fact is though, Saints had hardly made them work, they had nothing to be tired from. Late on they had two decent chances but, fortunately made them count.
Spartan were decent but didn't have to play out of their skins to force a replay thanks to the shocking performance from St. Mirren.
That's now three games without a goal, and the performances are getting worse and worse. We may be seven points clear, but we need to get things sorted soon or we can kiss the title good bye.
And, possibly worst of all, we now need to put up with another ten days of the press waxing lyracil about the magnificent Spartans and every tiny thing being spun to reflect us in a negative light.