St Mirren's fine form could make it a happy new year

heraldscotland staff

Published on 22 Dec 2008

One good run of form will be all it takes to avoid relegation this season. After their third victory in a row, St Mirren are not safe yet, but are feeling a lot more comfortable than they were last month and another win, against Hamilton Academical this Saturday, might just be enough.

Kilmarnock 0
St Mirren 1

A four-point gap can evaporate in weeks, but having been bottom at the end of last month, St Mirren's first win at this ground for 16 years - and their first run of three consecutive wins since they were promoted in 2006 - could not have been better timed. Next week's six-pointer is followed by another home game, their last at Love Street, against Motherwell; if all goes to plan, it could be a very happy new year for the Paisley side.

Not a lot had happened at Rugby Park by the time Andy Dorman put St Mirren ahead near half-time. The first outbreak of quality football in a poor game saw Dennis Wyness control Franco Miranda's diagonal ball and play in his team-mate in the same motion; Dorman finished confidently from 15 yards. After failing to score all season until last week against Inverness, this was his second goal in a row.

"Dennis Wyness is making me look good," the midfielder said - it was the striker's assist for Dorman's goal against Inverness as well. "His touch was brilliant and it was a great ball in to me. I feel like I've been playing quite well recently but not been getting the goals, but if the team's doing well that's all that matters. I'd love to score in every game, but I know that's not possible.

"It feels really good to win again - since I've been here I've not won three in a row. The goal settled us down, gave us something to defend and let us go and play a bit. The wins breed confidence but we know we're still down there - but if we could beat Hamilton that would give us a massive lift and some breathing space."

The SPL managers' agreement not to criticise referees in public seemed in danger of being torn to bits just 24 hours after it was publicly announced. Having been angry at not being invited to the original six-man meeting, it might have been understandable - and amusing - if Jim Jefferies had taken some unilateral action and given Stevie O'Reilly the lambasting he deserved. Unfortunately, the Kilmarnock manager bit his tongue, although he did express his bemusement at the new initiative.

Refereeing only his fifth top-flight game, O'Reilly made mistakes continually, most often in St Mirren's favour, much to Jefferies' and the home crowd's disgust. Highlights included two good Kilmarnock penalty shouts rejected, one for a push on David Fernandez in the first half, one for handball by John Potter in the second, but various minor errors couldn't be catalogued. Fernandez, in fact, should have been sent off for hurling the ball to the ground when he had already been booked, but that was another one the ref got wrong.

The Spaniard was circumspect afterwards but still made his feelings plain. "I don't want to talk about the referee but I hope I never see him again," he said. "What happened down there has never happened in my career so I don't want to talk about it."

Since ending Dundee United's long unbeaten run last month, Kilmarnock have lost to Inverness, Hamilton and now St Mirren. "We had a good chance of getting in touch with the top six and blew it," Fernandez added. "We lose at home to teams below us and get a result against the bigger teams - it's frustrating."