TWO games, two abandonments, but Ross County were much more content to have the contest curtailed this time.
Just eight days have passed since the Dingwall side's derby against Inverness Caledonian Thistle was abandoned after a goalless first half - a power cut having caused the floodlights to fail - but Derek Adams' side were 2-0 in arrears and facing defeat yesterday when a waterlogged pitch forced referee Willie Collum to call a halt to this SPFL Premiership contest after 52 minutes. Safe to say, County were not lobbying the officials to resume the game after almost half an hour of deliberations.
Adams, however, was honest enough to admit his team were fortunate to get another chance at playing the fixture and, furthermore, suggested that the rules should be amended so as not to penalise whichever team were leading. "Maybe, in future, the governing body has to look at countries like Holland where the game restarts at the point where it was called off and the goals and booking stand," the County manager said."
It was easy, of course, to be charitable in such circumstances; his side had "got out of jail" after all. St Mirren, understandably, were more upset even if most of those involved with the Paisley club reluctantly accepted that Collum's decision was correct. The second half was seven minutes old - and a Brian McLean pass out of defence had just held up in a puddle to almost gift the hosts a third goal - when the referee ordered the players off.
There followed a 29-minute hiatus during which the St Mirren groundstaff and youth team poked, prodded and forked the sodden surface and Collum and his colleagues tested the various areas of concern. Every successful roll, skip and bounce of the ball was greeted by cheers from the home support, but after retiring inside for a second time, the referee deemed the pitch unplayable.
"We tried to give it every opportunity," said Collum. "We hoped when we took the teams off we could rectify the situation. The priority is the safety of the players and we deemed that the field was unsafe and unplayable and we had no option but to abandon the match."
Danny Lennon reluctantly agreed with that assessment, but the great shame for the St Mirren manager was that his side were cantering towards a third win in four. Purposeful with the ball and dogged without, the hosts coped with the conditions much better than a County side who continued to look calamitous.
Immediately appreciating the value of moving the ball quickly, and emboldened by the problems such an approach was causing the visitors, the Paisley side soon took a firm grip on the contest and were rewarded with two goals. Adams suggested the first could be attributed to the sodden surface, Ben Gordon getting into a funk trying to deal with Jim Goodwin's cross and affording Paul McGowan the opportunity to prod past Mark Brown, but the second was the consequence of a moment of ingenuity from John McGinn.
The midfielder cleaved open the defence with a pass that bisected four defenders before locating Steven Thompson, who stepped across another County man and finished.
The goal, and assist, are sadly erased from the records, but McGinn's first-half booking is not. That was the only point of contention for Lennon. "It's a difficult situation for the referee," he said. "One manager wants the game to go on and the other wants it stopped, but he gave it every chance. But it's frustrating because we saw the other results and we could have capitalised to move a couple of places up the table."
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