02/11/2024 – ROSS C (H)

Even by St Mirren standards the last week has been pretty wild. Just over 7 days ago we went toe to toe with Rangers at Ibrox and were very unlucky to come away with nothing.

In fact, it has been argued we were on the end of some very odd and perplexing decisions, and who knows, on another day may have resulted in points coming home to Paisley, although at this particular ground it feels there are times a Saints fan might sneeze and the opposition gets a penalty. (We’re joking, obviously)

The improved performance was encouraging however, and this was taken into the St Johnstone match where the real Saints dominated for most of the game after a bright opening from the visitors, and the 3-1 win was most welcome, especially as we had another match coming quickly with Ross County visiting Paisley that Saturday.

The overwhelming expectation was we would win the match, from fans to media to the bookies, but as we know and repeatedly find out, WE ARE MORE COMFORTABLE AS UNDERDOGS and this is the first lesson we learned from the weekend, although hardly a revolution we concede.

Ross County sat deep and defended well, as you would expect from bottom six side last season going to a top 5 club, and Saints just couldn’t get any rhythm or cohesion into our play to put them under any sustained pressure.

Added to that some fatigue from the previous matches, and the game kind of just fizzled out lamely much to the frustration of everyone, apart from County who made the trip back to the Highlands probably happy with the point. In fact, after the match we heard their coaches and media officers say exactly that in the tunnel area as the analysis of the game took place. Must have been a quick chat, mind you.

However, this does prove one thing for Saints. WE’VE COME A LONG WAY IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME, and this is the second thing we learned at the weekend.

Teams respect and fear us in Paisley, and so they should. In the last 45 home league matches, we’ve lost only 6 matches to teams occupying a league position outside the top 3 spots, and just one of these was to a team in the bottom six at the time of the fixture, Kilmarnock in April 2023.

This sort of record will be known by other clubs and is resulting in tactics being altered to frustrate us, particularly for teams in the bottom half of the league, quite simply as it will give the opposition a better chance of taking something out of the match, like we do against certain clubs.

There is nothing wrong with this, and it is up to us break them down and open the scoring, making the game slightly easier for us to create chances, but it is a fairly new experience for us in the topflight without doubt, and proof of our progress as Paisley had become too easy for clubs to come and win at before Mr Robinson worked his magic.

Sadly on Saturday, we missed a penalty and of course anyone can do this, even players as good as Mark O’Hara and on this occasion Greg Kiltie, but we know they’ll step up again when it matters most, that’s in their character.

Anyway, we always like to finish on a positive note and on Saturday we got our second clean sheet of the season and our first since the opening match, a much welcome shut out as the defence returns to some kind of stability following injuries and unavailability.

Hopefully, this will be the start of run of fixtures where the manager is able to pick the same players consistently, which has been one of the main differences from previous seasons.

With Richard Taylor and Conor McMenamin now fully fit, along with Kiltie, we can get our best players on the park and aim for European football again. Perhaps our young loan stars, Kieran Offord, Lewis Jamieson and Fraser Taylor can play a part in this, such is the great impact they are having at their respective clubs.

Keep it up lads and COYS!

Ross County Players of the Match:

5 points – Alex Gogic

3 points – Marcus Fraser

1 point – Richard Taylor