15/03/2025 – MOTHERWELL (A)

The Premiership split edges another game closer, but unfortunately for Saints we are running out of fixtures to clinch a third successive top 6 place.

Saturday at Fir Park was a day of familiarities, with Saints once again failing to secure a win after dominating large parts of a match and the now mandatory bewildering decision going against us, when Toyosi Olusanya was ordered off for the offence of being fouled by Dan Casey.

In general though, the team played well, particularly in the first half when Olusanya and Ayunga got behind Motherwell with ease as Saints dominated all over the park.

From one of these excursions deep into home territory in the 23rd minute, Olusanya found Caolan Boyd-Munce on the edge of the box, who tried to curl an effort into the right hand corner past Ellery Balcombe, however Steven O’Donnell sent it into the opposite end of the goal when he stuck his head in front of the shot and diverted the ball into the net.

10 minutes later, it was 2-0 with a goal of the season contender from Killian Phillips which should have dominated the after match talk, when he acrobatically scissor kicked a sensational left foot volley into the corner of the net.

Although most Saints fans would have seen Phillips perfectly executing this strike, unfortunately due to the awful viewing platform offered by the top tier of the stand at Fir Park, most didn’t see it hit the net as you can’t see the goal frames from the overwhelming majority of seats in this part of the stand, with no entry allowed to the lower tier that offers a perfect view from every seat.

Scottish football must do better.

Unfortunately, Motherwell grabbed a goal back immediately after very poor defending, although the execution from Callum Slattery was sublime with the outside of his right foot from 20 yards. This was Motherwell’s first effort at goal, a worrying trend for Saints as Celtic and Hearts also scored from their first efforts in the previous 2 matches.

Saints continued to dominate for the rest of the first half, but strangely took our foot off the peddle in the second, although Motherwell caused us little issues until Slattery hit a deflected shot beyond Hemming to equalise after 72 minutes. It was the home sides second and final shot on target all afternoon.

This was the end of the scoring, but a lot happened afterwards including the sending off of Olusanya in the 84th minute with Saints again in the ascendancy and looking for the winner.

The forward collected a pass from Mark O’Hara on his chest, and tried to spin around into the penalty area only for Dan Casey to run into him full force with arms outstretched.

It was an accidental collision, but if it was a foul, then it should have been to Saints. The referee Grant Irvine decided otherwise however, and penalised the Saints man, also booking him which meant he was ordered off.

Universally, it has been accepted that this was the wrong decision, however as it was a second booking, Saints have no right to appeal and have to accept that a player was incorrectly sent off during a crucial match and additionally will lose Olusanya for another match in the next few weeks.

Seems fair.

The sending off had little impact on the flow of the match, and after 14 minutes was added on due to a bad injury to Caolan Boyd-Munce, Saints continued to dominate with chances falling to Kiltie, Gogic and Smyth from a free kick, but in the end we had to be content with a point.

Would we have won the match with Olusanya still on the park? Nobody knows, however missing him for another game while we have Mandron and probably Ayunga out injured is something we may not be able to overcome and this incorrect decision is potentially season defining for St. Mirren.

We will get on with it however, there is no other choice. The standard of performance recently has been excellent, and both James Scott and Owen Oseni have the opportunity to prove they should be in the mix after the split as forward positions are now available.

If we can win 9 points from the last three matches, it may prove to be enough to get top 6, but there is no room for error now, anything less will see us bottom six for the first time since 2021/22.

Let’s get behind the team and try to defy the odds again.

COYS!

Motherwell Players of the Match:

5 points – Killian Phillips

3 points – Mark O’Hara

1 point – Toyosi Olusanya

Check our the Player of the Season race here –

PLAYER OF THE SEASON