IT was all going so well for St Mirren when a moment of madness knocked the Saints off their stride - and the Staggies into theirs.
They had been playing for an hour in Paisley with the Buddies holding off the advances of their guests, when Joe Shaugnessy flew into Ross Stewart on the halfway line. Despite the cries from the Ross County bench, that, as far as Mike Roncone was concerned, was that.
That wasn’t that as far as the visitors and fourth official Willie Collum were concerned, however.
Tempers flared and during the chaos Collum whispered a word into Roncone’s ear and suddenly the red card was out for the defender.
It only took Ross County ten minutes to make the most of the decision, Nathan Sheron’s messy own-goal dragging the Staggies back into a game Jon Obika’s first-half strike looked to have put beyond them.
“Willie is our best official,” said Goodwin. “So, with a rookie referee then it makes sense to have the most experienced referee there alongside him to talk him through it.
“These young referees have got to get gametime at some point.
“But I thought he did well apart from that one incident that we’ll all look back on. It’s not his fault that things have panned out the way they have.”
On the surface, Goodwin and Stuart Kettlewell seem entirely different, yet similarly charismatic characters. The latter knowingly so, who you could imagine approaching a holiday on a beautiful Greek island with the same enthusiasm as the Manchester United team. Goodwin, meanwhile, would be more at home with a pint of bitter from his local.
Regardless, it would be hard for St Mirren not to be well organised given the excellence of Goodwin, who has the added bonus of sounding even more threatening than Liam Nesson on a trip to Paris.
Whenever Sam Foley needed encouragement to press or his team tired in the last frantic minutes, there was the Irishman to remind them in the strongest of terms of what he demanded.
His players stuck to their task, hounding Ross County from the first minute and, aptly, the Staggies were like a deer caught in the headlights whenever the imposing Obika or Junior Morias hit the accelerator. More importantly for the hosts, they held on despite the late pressure of the visitors.
The Saints’ approach paid dividends just 15 minutes in when Obika swivelled superbly in the box to slot beyond Ross Laidlaw. That doesn’t really tell the full story of a goal born out of Kyle McAllister’s impressive run from wide or the fortunate flick off a County man, but the home side deserved the lead all the same.
McAllister was at the heart of things for St Mirren in the first-half, the winger jinking past young Josh Reid to force Laidlaw into action one minute and slotting a perfect ball in Morias’ path the next. The County keeper again denied the Buddies on that occasion.
County, so slick against Hamilton just two weeks ago, struggled to find their usual rhythm but did chip away with increasing thrust at St Mirren’s rearguard.
The best they could muster before the break was a Ross Stewart header against the bar.
The away side were much better in the second-half, Kettlewell’s changes at the break breathing new life into his team. Laidlaw still had to deny Morias with a flying save, but the Staggies strolled forward with so much more attacking intent and forced Richard Tait to acrobatically clear off the line seconds into the half.
With Gardyne impressing and the hosts retreating, they might well have found an equaliser of their own doing. Then the madness ensued, a tired, frantic St Mirren struggled to get to grips with their sudden man disadvantage, and the Staggies forced home the equaliser.
“It’s a red card in my opinion,” said the County manager. “We will all have a view on it and we will have different views. I have seen it back and I think my player is very lucky to still be playing at the end.
“The game turned on its head when they went down to ten men and we got our goal. I want that bit more in the first half.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel