Saints and Sinners

An abject display by the home side in the first half saw Saints take a stranglehold on the proceedings. Collin Samuel stole in at the back post to prod the visitors ahead after the Inverness defence inexplicably let a probing through ball find the dreadlocked striker on his lonesome.  Butcher was not a happy bunny at half time but things improved in the second period, well they could not possibly have got worse for the home side, and Jonny Hayes outstripped the Perth defence to slide a ball below Smith to secure a draw.
 

Davie saw the game like this:-

If we fast forward to the end of this game, the sighs of relief were audible from all sides of the ground, for all sorts of reasons. ICT had almost committed grand larceny at the end of this one, having produced one of the worst first half displays that I can remember for this team. The Perth Saints sighs were on account of the fact that they returned the favour in the second half. In a frankly dire first half, only Ryan Esson acquitted himself. The rest must have been traumatised at the mere thought of Butcher's half time verbal onslaught. The man was apoplectic.

From the first minute, it was evident that fankle was going to be the word of the day as far as the ICT defence went, and Grantie and Co obliged with a textbook demonstration of the meaning of the word. We were not coping with the ball down the flanks, and Jackson's 5th minute header over the bar was a harbinger. Doom was duly supplied by Colin SAMUEL in seven minutes, who ghosted round the back of the ICT defence as Tokely inexplicably ducked out of a header. Esson came out but was beaten by Samuels' low drive. 0-1. After that, the first half was a bomb scare as our central defence missed almost everything and only Esson kept us in it with several good stops, the best of which was against Parkin who was clean through. Kevin McCann looked like a lad short of game time and he'll want to forget that first half. He'll have that in common with the rest of us. I can't remember a decent first half chance until 43 minutes from a Rooney shot that went wide so if it's OK with you dear reader, we'll draw a veil over the rest of it.

Half time: Inverness CT 0 St. Johnstone 1

The general feeling at half time was that Butcher must have taken the paint off the walls in the interval chit chat; it couldn't be that bad in the 2^nd half and someone had to go. It was McCann, but only after 68 minutes. Improvement was not quickly evident, as the same side duly came out and a couple of tidy Saints efforts came and, thankfully, went. Some of the tackling was beginning to get "tasty" and in 49 minutes the ref booked MacKay for a breenge on Foran. Rooney made a great chance from the resultant free kick, but the end result was tame. The half was then a procession of Saints possession, but notably more organized resistance from ICT. Rooney had another shot after drifting in from the left, again saved by Smith. This neatly coincided with Russel Duncan coming on for McCann, departing the scene of the crime early. Jonny Hayes, meanwhile, showed signs of having woken up but he must have regretted it – every time he wakes up, he gets kicked. Time after time after time it happened today, Grainger being booked for his robust efforts. It must have annoyed Jonny greatly, because in 70 minutes Odhiambo fed Foran, who swiftly moved the ball on to the self same Jonny HAYES who put a low left foot shot under Smith from 15 yards as he attempted to relocate him back to Dublin on the end of his boot. Hayes in a heap, 1-1. After that, the Perth Saints went into their shell and there was only one team who looked likely to win. Rooney headed a glorious chance straight at Smith when scoring looked easy, Foran headed over and Hayes tried a few tricks before ending up in a heap again. Butcher's first half apoplexy was replaced by a similar whirling dervish display from McInnes in the second half as Inverness took over proceedings. Hayes eventually had enough and was booked for a hilariously bad tackle on Myrie-Williams. It's just not your game, wee man. Duff got him back though. 90 minutes was greeted by the happy realization that it was over and we wouldn't have to watch that again. It's not even on ALBA, and it's bound to get the end slot on Sportscene. Whew!

Referee was Alan Muir, who entered into the spirit of things with some unfathomable decisions, but I think even he was happy with a draw in the end. I know I was.