A SOLITARY first-half strike was enough to ease Kilmarnock's relegation worries as they stretched the gap over bottom club Gretna to a healthy 12 points and leapfrogged a St Mirren team who will have left Ayrshire feeling they got less than they deserved. This was a mammoth three points for Jim Jefferies and his men who can now sleep a little easier at night.
Coming in off the back of a 4-2 gubbing at the hands of Gretna won't have done the confidence of the Rugby Park men much good, although had Jamie Fowler converted an excellent chance after only 17 seconds morale would have been on the up. As it was,
St Mirren weathered the early storm and soon stamped their authority on the game with Ian Maxwell seeing his header hooked off the line by Craig Bryson and Billy Mehmet ballooning over from eight yards when set up by Hugh Murray.
It was all Saints at this point, however just as they discovered last Sunday against Celtic, being the better team counts for nothing as their hosts broke through with the scrappiest of openers. With 25 minutes played the returning Chris Smith lost the flight of the ball amidst a crowd scene inside his six-yard box, and could only look on in horror as the ball bounced into the back of the net off Danny Invincibile's torso.
Predictably, Kilmarnock suddenly found an extra yard to win tackles previously they were second best to, with Saints unable to get Andy Dorman on the ball or free the former New England Revolution man to make his trademark darts behind his strikers. Dorman, though, is proving an inspired signing and having momentarily slipped his chains he brought the best out in Alan Combe with a thumping drive.
Visiting keeper Smith hadn't covered himself in glory at the loss of the first goal and 10 minutes after the restart he very nearly capped a wobbly comeback when he needlessly took two attempts to deal with Bryson's long-range bobbler, having gifted the ball to the former Clyde winger with a scuffed clearance. At the other end the misfiring Mehmet nodded wide, having done well to steal a march on his near-post marker.
With the next goal of so much importance it was refreshing to see both teams having a go, with Saints going with three up top with the introduction of Jim Hamilton and the home team continuing to get the ball to the feet of their more creative players. One such passing move from Kilmarnock very nearly ended the game as a contest, Smith this time the hero as he rushed from his line to beat away Invincibile's strike after the Australian had been released with an incisive through ball.
Invincibile again came close as time ran down, cutting in from the left and flashing a right-foot drive inches wide of Smith's post. St Mirren, for their part, never stopped trying, but even with Gus MacPherson throwing on more and more attack-minded players, without the intelligence of the injured Craig Dargo they lacked something in the final third and never really posed Combe any late dangers.
Kilmarnock: Combe, Hamill, Lilley, Wright, Hay, Bryson, Fowler, Corrigan (Murray 46), Invincible, Johnston (Gibson 84), Taouil (Di Giacomo 60)
St Mirren: Smith, van Zanten, Potter, Haining, Maxwell (Miranda 73), Murray (Hamilton 62), Dorman, Mason (McGinn 85), Corcoran, Kean, Mehmet
Referee: M Tumilty
The full article contains 589 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
