St Mirren 2 Saints 1
Team ::
Main,Whiteford,Davison,Preston,Weir,Griffin,Dasovic,ONeill,Tosh,Georgio, Jenko
Subs : McCluskey,Bowmanm,McAnespie
Well I reckon this result was probably due with the boys having rode their luck a lot since New Year. Having said that we deserved at least a point, but with the total lack of discipline shown by certain players (Tosh !!) the team didnt do their cause any good.
A good crowd of over 4000 was at Love St to listen to the patronising shit of an announcer bore us all with his party music before the game got under way. Dasovicm, O'Neil and Jenko were all adjudged to have passed fitness tests, although the latter probably wasn't fit enough for a full game.
Both teams started well enough and played some good open attacking football despite the windy conditions. A few rash challenges saw Watson and Preston get booked. Saints had some of the early pressure and forced a few corners. However, without the height of a Roddy or Fergie any high balls into the box were easily dealt with by the Paisley defence. Preston and Dasovic seemed to have trouble developing an understanding in the centre of midfield and Andy Whiteford at right-back was sending too many passes astray.
It was Whiteford who gave away the ball in the middle of the first half to allow St Mirren to break free. Foster was given too much room and broke through to send a low ball under Alan Main. Saints tried to fight back but weren't helped when Jenko pulled up injured and had to be replaced by Kieran McAnespie. Weir also managed to get booked for a late tackle (must be that blue top he wears).
McAnespie however decided to play out of his skin today and IMHO Jenko will be lucky to get the no 11 jersey back. It was only a few minutes after he came on that Saints had a good cross into the box which was headed back and forth before Keyring got the final header to make it 1-1. Unfortunately the lead wasnt to last and in 44 minutes a long range effort from that bastard Turner was deflected past Main to give St Mirren the lead.
The start of the second half saw the ref (Tom Brown - remember that name) prove that life does exist on other planets - either that or else he had been indulging in the traditional Paisley culture too much. It all began with the South side linesman informing him that Main had changed tops at half-time - cue a booking for Jesus but strangely enough he wasnt forced to change back to his original top.
5 mins into the second half and all hell broke loose. Georgio was tripped in the box and altho it would have been soft, it was a definite penalty. The ball was cleared for a throw-in and some of the St Mirren players decided to show Georgio what they thought of him. A bit of shoving to and fro and the ref calls Georgio over to book him and then Tosh for dissent. Meanwhile the South Stand linesman also has his flag up. The ref eventually notices and goes over. A few masonic whispers later and Buddies defender Watson receives his second yellow and subsequent red. Meanwhile (are you all following this), the other linesman also raises his flag. Cue for the ref to go for a trot over and after indicating several different players he eventually decides to book Tosh again and send him off - a decision which our Toshie didnt want to take lying down until Preston dragged him away. So now both teams were down to 10 men and Saints had 5 bookings to their name !!
The rest of the second-half saw Saints pile on the pressure as St Mirren put up the shutters and relied on the ref to get them out of trouble. Saints opened the game up well and forced a few corners. McAnespie was in the thick of it and showed that hes not just an attacker with his willingness to chase the ball and harrass defenders as well as put in the good tackles. He also had an excellent 20 yard turn-and-volley shot go just wide.
Davison and Preston on the wing managed to get several good crosses in and from the corners there were a few clearances off the line. Whiteford was replaced by McCluskey. St Mirrens only chance was a long-range Turner effort which went into orbit. As the game went on we put all the pressure on with Danny and Weir also pressing forward. But luck wasnt on our side this time. We're still 10 points clear though and at least the team performance was a hell of a lot better than in recent weeks.