ST MIRREN completed a remarkable reversal in fortunes to seal their first league victory of the season. Gus MacPherson will be delighted to get the monkey off his team's back, yet while the Buddies were certainly worthy of leaving with something, Craig Brewster will demand answers on just how his team conspired to lose this one.
With good wins against Aberdeen and Falkirk in the bank, the home team made a confident start and twice inside the opening 10 minutes they could have taken the lead. Garry Wood ought to have done far better than tamely prod a cute Adam Rooney heade
r into the arms of Mark Howard when alone, six-yards from goal, and the enigma that is the talented Ian Black shaved the junction of post and bar with a 25-yard drive.
Saints, as has all too often been the case this season, were again looking a little listless in the final third, especially with dangerman Andy Dorman nullified in a wide-right position he simply did not look at home in. With no pace through the centre and two strikers always looking to link and get on the end of high balls, there was a one-dimensional element to the Buddies.
Slowly, though, the Paisley men, having begun to win some ball through Will Haining at the back and Gary Mason in midfield, started to look to do more than lump it long.
However, the Highlanders were to enjoy a half-time lead after the impressive Rooney rammed home a penalty kick earned when strike partner Wood was fouled by bumbling Saints defender Franco Miranda when there seemed next to no danger.
Seconds after the restart, Rooney nearly had his second to end the contest, this time taking advantage of a rare lapse from Haining before holding off the former Oldham man and rattling the underside of Howard's goal.
Living to tell the tale from such a close call clearly stirred Saints into action as, for the first time, they got some worthwhile deliveries into the area. Defensively, the home team looked a touch ragged and neither they nor their manager will reflect with much satisfaction on Billy Mehmet's 61st-minute equaliser which was a mixture of static defending and tremendous tenacity on the part of the big striker who stole in to toe poke home.
In a desperate bid to seize the initiative once again, Brewster tinkered with his personnel, but it was to no avail. The momentum was with Saints and it was they who were to go on and grab all the points. Caley were again defensively culpable by allowing a low cross to dribble through a forest of legs before landing at the feet of Garry Brady who unerringly smashed home.
The full article contains 465 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
