You're riding high in late September, then Kilmarnock give you a bit of a doing in early October. Recent cup progress (and a ruthless 5-1 shellacking in Paisley back in March) may have fooled you into thinking St Mirren's Killie curse was a thing of the past. In blustery conditions, Kilmarnock baited the visitors into taking majority custody of the ball and posting a dangerously high defensive line.
That's life. That's what all the people say. You're riding high in late September, then Kilmarnock give you a bit of a doing in early October.
Not my words, the words of Francis Albert Sinatra.
Recent cup progress (and a ruthless 5-1 shellacking in Paisley back in March) may have fooled you into thinking St Mirren's Killie curse was a thing of the past. I'll concede it had fooled me.
However, Saturday's clinical home performance by Stuart Kettlewell and Co will haunt Stephen Robinson long beyond Halloween.
Saturday, as painful as this is to admit, was a reminder the Saints can be played and beaten at their own game.
In blustery conditions, Kilmarnock baited the visitors into taking majority custody of the ball and posting a dangerously high defensive line.
In 90 minutes of battling both Storm Amy and a deep Killie backline, St Mirren failed to muster much more than a string of passes and the occasional corner. Killie, however, seized their opportunities for two preventable yet seemingly inevitable goals.
We're supposed to be the ones who win the ball in the centre circle and send a pacy forward rushing behind static defenders, and we're the ones supposed to flash crosses across to waiting target men at the back post.
On Saturday, David Watson and Marcus Dackers took the spoils that Killian Phillips and Mikael Mandron might reasonably have expected to have feasted on.
Robinson, characteristically honest and self-critical after such a performance, summed the game up as: "We passed without purpose, didn't deliver balls. They did the opposite to us and thoroughly deserved to win."
It's hard to argue with that assessment and so it's perhaps best to leave it at that.
The Buddies remain in a reasonable league position and should retain a positive outlook on the season thus far.
Saturday's defeat was painful but dejection should only be fleeting, blustering through for the weekend like a named storm and then fizzling out in time for Sunday dinner. If that can be managed without chucking a bit of patio furniture around the back garden or tipping over your wheelie bins, all the better.
Mark Jardine can be found at Misery Hunters
Category: General Sports
