Against St Mirren's 3-5-2 I was prepared for them to have a lot of the ball and that's how it proved. But when we had the ball, we just gave it right back. We only showed quality in flashes. First half was about right, but second half we were dreadful.
My MoM was Granty who had an excellent game and handled Sutton well, but he must have lost him at the corner (it was away up the far end so it was hard to see).
I don't think St Mirren can play much better than that but still they created very little. Our goal showed how we could knife them open but too many times the final ball was poor, and unforced errors at that- like Russeldinho fluffing an easy pass to Rossco overlapping in the second half in acres of room, or Dargo hanging on to the ball in the first half when he had Barry inside to pass to.
We spent the entire second half punting it clear. The players had no composure and nobody would take a risk and pass it. Russell Duncan looked like it was the wrong day to give him a whole game back in the team, very rusty.
St Mirren are probably the most physical team in the league and they and their fans were well up for it, a bit like us in our first season in the SPL. They make Love St quite an intimidating place, even with 4000 it was much worse than Ibrox the other week. Unfortunately we got dragged into the physical stuff and couldn't keep the ball on the deck, even though it looked like we could hurt them when we did get it down and play.
The five bookings were mostly harsh I thought, and Mr Tumelty seemed to favour the home team, and took about 70 mins to book their player Brittain. He showed his inexperience and was influenced by the crowd. Rankin's was a cynical foul, but Bayne's and McBain's looked harsh, and Barry's seemed to be for dissent. Mind you it seemed to me that Rory nutted the boy and would be getting a red.
And finally.... all credit to Ross who continues to play amidst a storm of abuse from the north bank, even after more than 7 years.