MARK CONNOLLY made the trip from hero to villain and back again during a rollercoaster 90 minutes and has set his sights on making sure Kilmarnock continue their journey through the season on an upward curve.
The Irish centre-back set up Robbie Muirhead for the opening goal early in the second period before being caught in possession on the edge of his area by John McGinn in the lead-up to Adam Drury's 71st minute equaliser and St Mirren's first goal of a miserable campaign.
However, Connolly popped up with time running out to score the winner and ensure the Rugby Park side wake up this morning a handsome 10 points clear of Saints and Ross County.
Last season was all about avoiding relegation for Allan Johnston's side. Things seem a little more positive around the club nowadays and Connolly insists his focus is on the top of the table rather than the bottom.
"It was nice to set up the first for Robbie, but I think the ball stuck under my feet for their goal," he said. "It was sort of my fault and I am just glad I made up for it. I thought it was a foul because I had a shoulder across the side of the face, but it is the referee's decision. The further we push away from the bottom, the more we can look at the top six."
As the second half was so eventful, let's make a pact not to speak in great detail of the first.
The only real talking point came when the St Mirren captain Jim Goodwin risked a red card with a late challenge on Sammy Clingan. The referee, Alan Muir, felt it worthy of nothing more than a booking.
The match really did catch fire on 54 minutes, though, when St Mirren's Jason Naismith saw a header from a McGinn corner beat Craig Samson and cross the line only for Muir to disallow the effort for a foul on Manuel Pascali. Eight minutes later, Kilmarnock were in front.
Connolly played a long pass up the left that Muirhead controlled. Naismith stood off and the 18-year-old, tipped to go on and play for "big clubs" by Johnston, moved the ball from left foot to right before curling a beautiful effort past Marian Kello.
Saints rallied well and levelled when McGinn, having pinched the ball from Connolly on the edge of the area, fired a cross-cum-shot towards the back post that Drury showed good awareness to slot home.
The Paisley club, however, sold the jerseys with eight minutes remaining. Clingan launched a long free kick into the area from the right and Connolly had time and space to power home a header from eight yards.
"We gave it away with that header going unchallenged," said Saints manager Tommy Craig.
James Marwood felt he should have been given a penalty in the final minute when going down under a challenge from Ross Barbour. Muir gave him a yellow card for diving. Nothing is going the Buddies' way.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article