Kilmarnock 3 St Mirren 1: Composed passages end in disappointing final chapter for the visitors

Monday 24 September 2012

ST MIRREN will have found the narrative of this match hard to follow at times, if only because it was punctuated unexpectedly, the obvious theme was underdeveloped and the hero did not get the goal.

Cillian Sheridan opened the scoring for Kilmarnock

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Chris Tait

That the Paisley side might have gone top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League had all gone according to plan seemed novel early in the afternoon, but it was left to form a footnote to their disappointment.

If that opening analogy seems a little tortured then it is nothing compared to the treatment St Mirren dished out to their supporters in the early stages on Saturday. Their touch was assured and passing incisive but it failed to bring goals, despite their attacking play showing all the conviction of a team that had not suffered defeat in a little over a month. They got a pretty good look at it at Rugby Park, the loss of three goals in a little over an hour leaving St Mirren with time to stare uncomfortably towards the concession of three points.The usual reaction is to try to quickly cleanse the palate with a taste of success, and St Mirren will be obliged tomorrow with a Scottish Communities League Cup second-round tie against Hamilton Academical. Yet any desperation to ease league disappointment should not become a feature of their play in that tie; against Kilmarnock the Paisley side were at their most ravishing when attacks were composed and the ball shared among players who drifted into space. It was when the pursuit of a goal became rushed that the match ran away from them."We were a shadow of ourselves in the second half," said Jim Goodwin, the St Mirren captain, whose side scored a late consolation through Paul McGowan. "We were the ones having to chase the game and they hit us on the break."There might have been a sense of inevitability about the two blows sustained after the interval, then, but St Mirren certainly didn't see the first one coming as Cillian Sheridan stuck the head on their promising start. It was the Irishman's first goal for the club he joined earlier this month after a spell in Bulgaria and he looked at home at the tip of Kilmarnock's attack. "His hold-up play is brilliant – he is a great signing for us and he will continue to prove it," said James Dayton, the Kilmarnock winger, whose side went further ahead through James Fowler.Dayton might also be considered a shrewd acquisition. Nothing much was known of the Englishman when he alighted two years ago at Rugby Park other than that he had been working under Glenn Hoddle at a football academy, but he has since embellished his CV with a few spectacular goals. One of those earned him the goal-of-the-season award last term and, while such prizes can often seem hollow, his gallant run and instinctive finish for his side's third goal was worth special consideration."Rory McKeown has done great for me because he's made an underlap; he's taken [Gary] Teale and I've used Rory to chop inside and I had to drive at the centre-half and commit him. That's what I done and lucky enough it's gone in," said Dayton, his words clumsier than the move they described. "I didn't see where it finished; I was told it finished in the top corner."

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Kilmarnock 3 St Mirren 1: Composed passages end in disappointing final chapter for the visitors

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