St Johnstone 0 St Mirren 1: Kiltie bags huge goal as Buddies move clear of bottom two
ARBROATH assistant Ian Campbell watched on from the stands.
And St Mirren made it virtually certain his side will face St Johnstone in the relegation play-offs.
Greg Kiltie’s second-half goal split the teams here, securing the Buddies’ Premiership status barring a total disaster over the next three games.
But in truth, the Paisley Saints were miles better.
THE VERDICT
ST JOHNSTONE: Clark 7, Rooney 7, Gordon 5, McCart 5, Sang 5, Davidson 5, Hallberg 5, Crawford 4, Booth 5 Hendry 6, Ciftci 3
Subs: MacPherson (Crawford 59) - 4, Middleton (Sang 59) - 3, Bair (Ciftci 75) - 2, May (Davidson 75) - 2
ST MIRREN: Alnwick 7, Fraser 7, Shaughnessy 7, McCarthy 7, Tanser 7, Tait 7, Gogic 8, Ronan 7, Kiltie 8, Grieve 7, Main 7
Subs: Flynn (Kiltie 82) - 3 Brophy (Grieve 90) - 2
MAN OF THE MATCH
Alex Gogic played a pivotal part in the St Mirren goal and was the driving force for them all afternoon. The ex-Hibs midfielder was all over the pitch, breaking up attacks, winning the ball back and then launching raids forward whenever he could. In fact, his performance was everything St Johnstone’s wasn’t. He set the tone for his team and the rest of the players followed on from that. Top midfield display.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Andrew Dallas incensed Saints for letting Marcus Fraser off without a booking for a blatant handball - only to yellow card him for a foul a few minutes later. That annoyed Callum Davidson so much he got a talking to for remonstrating. Handed out a yellow to Liam Gordon and then one to Richard Tait right at the death. Didn’t have any major calls to make in either penalty box.
MEN IN THE DUGOUT
Callum Davidson came into this game full of optimism given his team’s recent form but the bubble was well and truly popped here. They were spooked by St Mirren’s fast start and never recovered. They’ll need to find another level in the play-offs. Pressure had been building at St Mirren but their players stepped up when Stephen Robinson needed them to. They were best all over the pitch and deserved the win.
They picked the perfect time to end their seven-year winless run at McDiarmid Park and ended their poor run of five defeats on the bounce.
For St Johnstone, this was a huge anti-climax after clawing their way back towards the pack above them in recent weeks.
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If last season’s Scottish and Betfred Cup winners are going to escape a remarkable relegation they’ll have to produce far more than they did here, that’s for sure.
Despite the decent form they had coming into this, they were shocking throughout - mustering ZERO shots on target in the whole game.
The dynamism and relentless pressing from the front of last season is gone, replaced by a passivity unrecognisable from St Johnstone teams in recent times.
St Mirren bullied and outbattled them for long spells here so if they’re going to survive against the Championship side this month, they’ll have to dig deep and get back to what they used to be.
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This result was a huge boost for Stephen Robinson, who has presided over a horror time since replacing Jim Goodwin.
But his team were streets better here and with the amount of graft they put into this ninety minutes, it’s a mystery how they could be on a run so bad.
With their future looking safe, they’ll soon be able to think about next season.
The Buddies set the tone from the first whistle and should have opened the scoring just thirty seconds into this, as Alex Grieve found himself running into a gaping hole in the middle of the Saints defence.
He took a touch and lashed a shot across keeper Zander Clark, but the big stopper got a hand stretched out to block it.
That sort of high-octane start was precisely what Robinson would have demanded from his men and they managed to keep it up with a series of long throws by ex-Saints Joe Shaughnessy which had the Perth men pinned back.
Alex Gogic was next to have a chance for the visitors, first slapping a free kick off the wall 25 yards out before thumping the rebound just past Clark’s right-hand post.
St Johnstone had to wait until after twenty minutes for their first real opening and will feel they should have done more with it.
Callum Booth picked up the loose ball from a defended corner, picked out Hendry inside the area and after showing quick feet to shuffle for a shooting angle, the striker blasted just wide of the far post.
St Mirren, inspired by Curtis Main’s physical edge up top, hit back through with a cross drilled into the six-yard box that Clark took two attempts to smother.
The Buddies remained looking the more dangerous side, more dynamic in attack with a front two pressing the home defence relentlessly every time they had the ball.
But as the first half wore on, the game started to become more like what St Johnstone wanted, stop-start and scrappy, with them gradually getting it forward to Hendry and Ciftci more.
The Turkish striker is an enigma but he hasn’t produced enough attacking threat for Davidson since coming back into the side after injury.
The power-packed, guileful striker of his Dundee United days looks long gone these days and he’s a shell of the player seen at Tannadice.
St Mirren started the second half with zip and took the lead, deservedly on the balance of play, after 53 minutes.
It was one Davidson won’t want to see back again, as his side were taken apart far too simply.
Gogic won the ball in the middle of the park and broke forward fully forty yards, with Murray Davidson struggling to keep pace and Ali Crawford casually walking back.
Now he had the home defence on the run, so slipped it down the left for Grieve and his quick cutback rolled perfectly for the unmarked Kiltie, who slammed a shot beyond Clark into the keeper’s left-hand corner.
Ruthless from the visitors, ridiculously easy for the home team.
Davidson threw on Glenn Middleton and Cammy MacPherson for Tom Sang and Crawford after 59 minutes.
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And then with a quarter-hour left rolled the dice again, bringing on Theo Bair for Ciftci and Stevie May for Davidson.
The changes made little difference, though, as St Mirren comfortably coped with a late flurry to see the game out to victory.
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