THERE was a warning sign early on.

The ball was played into the box and James McFadden did nothing, essentially; just elaborately stepped over the ball and let it run through. True, there was nobody behind him waiting to blast the ball home, but it was a delightful reminder that there was mischief in the not-that-old dog yet.

A first St Johnstone goal soon followed. Lee Croft swung in a corner from the left, McFadden controlled the ball instantly in the box, spun and fired a shot that rolled through a crowd of bodies into the net. Until that point, he played provider, slipping his team-mates into space and cushioning deftly judged passes.

"He's different class," said Michael O'Halloran, his attacking team-mate. "You get him on the ball, the pockets and that, he'll find you. Me and Crofty know that if we get on our bike he's gonna find the pass. He's been brilliant. He's got bags of experience."

O'Halloran himself scored the other goal, in slightly controversial circumstances. Filip Kiss went down in the St Johnstone box after a challenge by Chris Millar - "Filip said it was a stonewaller," revealed manager Jim McIntyre - and referee Craig Thomson put his whistle to his lips . . . but decided not to blow.

McFadden kept going, whipping a long ball upfield as O'Halloran charged forward, battled with his marker and somehow emerged in the box with the ball. Brian Graham, the striker, was clunking upfield in support, screaming for the ball, but he was ignored.

"He said it was lucky it went in . . . but I don't think he'd have passed it to be fair!" said O'Halloran, who fired that chance home but really should have scored another when he headed on to the post from barely a yard out.

"I'm going back the way," he explained. "Big Brian was behind me, shouting again for it, but it's instinctive, innit? When you're in there, you go for it. I don't even know where it went because I've clobbered into the post myself. The boys were saying they thought it was in but I don't know. I didn't see it."

And County? They could take some small solace in the fact their relegation rivals - St Mirren and Motherwell - also both failed to win. The visitors also responded well to their poor first half, and even had their hosts pinned against the wall for a while in the second period. After O'Halloran scored, they hit back immediately when Jake Jervis headed home. The teams meet again on Saturday, at the same venue in the William Scottish Cup and neither will be overwhelming favourites.

Paul Quinn, the Ross County right-back, seemed unimpressed at first by McFadden's performance. "I'm not sure if he . . ." he started, before pausing to have a wee think about how his former Motherwell team-mate had played. "Aye, I suppose he scored a goal and got an assist. I know first hand how good he is. If we nullify him better we'll get a result [next week in the Scottish Cup]. He's one of the best players in the league, we know that.

"We started slow. We forced it and forced it. We gave it a go, we're happy with the second half but the first wasn't good enough."