Battle of the Saints sees Paisley men march on

FORGET who is showing up best in the league at the moment, on cup duty St Mirren showed they had the substance to complement the style. Having come through a tough local derby against Morton in the last round of the Scottish Communities League Cup, there were fewer moments of concern at McDiarmid Park as two first-half goals gave them safe passage.

In the past five games between these teams, they had mustered just six goals between them, the last three matches all goal-less but St Johnstone were bolstered by victory over Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday.

Having struggled to find the goals they wanted last term, the result also proved that Derek McInnes had bought well in the summer, the recent glut of goals underlining their improvement in that department.

But they were hindered last night by another enforced switch to their starting line-up, Kevin Moon becoming the third first-choice midfielder to be sidelined, joining fellow playmaker Jody Morris and Murray Davidson in the stand.

St Johnstone consequently struggled to take a grip in the centre of the park and get adequate service to Cillian Sheridan, Sean Higgins and Francisco Sandaza.

The Argentine got a hat-trick against Livingston in the last round and, while the Paisley side have found goals harder to come by, they have been lauded for their creative style of play .

Having snuffed out the Perth saints in a 0-0 draw when they met less than two weeks ago, they were also the side looking likeliest as the first half of this encounter found its feet.

And by half-time they had showed they did have the wherewithawl to round off the rampaging runs forward with something tangible. The first goal may have come courtesy of one of the home players but it was also into the home goal. Having been a tad overwhelmed by the game and under pressure from the St Mirren forward line, Jamie Adams added to his own misery when he headed his attempted clearance past the Perth goalkeeper Peter Enckelman to give St Mirren the opener. The lead was justified on the balance of chances, but McInnes will have been disappointed that it was his own player who had eventually given the visitors the breakthrough.

There was no such generosity required in the 45th minute when St Mirren captain Jim Goodwin, rifled an unstoppanle strike into the top corner. The midfielder has been an astute signing by Danny Lennon, breaking up opposition play, while laying the foundations for so many of St Mirren attacks.

Last night he also weighed in with his first goal for the club, in fact his first in almost three years. With the clock ticking down to half-time, some desperate defending from the Perth side saw a last-gasp block denying Nigel Hasselbaink. The home defence could only clear as far as Goodwin lurking on the periphery of the penalty area and he met the ball beautifully to give his side a two-goal cushion.

The advantage could have been even greater.

While St Johnstone were restricted to a handful of half chances and a couple of long-range shots which failed to find the target, St Mirren were cultivating more careful breaks upfield.

Both Steven Thompson and Steven Thomson had efforts, while Gary Teale almost nipped in after Frazer Wright’s clearance battered off the back of team-mate Dave Mackay.

St Mirren were using the width in their side well, with both full-backs entering into the equation when Jeroen Tesselaar crossed from the left and right-back David Van Zanten’s header forced a save from Enckelman, while another ball in from wide, was just too tricky for Hasselbaink to fully connect with.

The uncertainty in the St Johnstone ranks was apparent and McInnes replaced Adams and Higgins with David Robertson and Willie Gibson at the start of the second half in the hope of sparking a comeback.

There was an improvement in the display but there were still no goals to cut the deficit as both sides cancelled each other out.

St Johnstone did keep pressing and, although Sandaza didn’t get away with one ridiculous attempt to punch the ball into the net, he and Gibson did chances, while Cillian Sheridan met a Liam Craig cross with 10 minutes remaining but couldn’t beat Craig Samson.

St Johnstone: Enckelman, MacKay, Wright, Anderson, Maybury, Higgins, Adams, Millar, Craig, Sheridan, Sandaza. Subs: Mannus, McCracken, Robertson, Gibson, Haber.

St Mirren: Samson, van Zanten, Mair, McAusland, Tesselaar, McLean, Thomson, Goodwin, Teale, Hasselbaink, Thompson. Subs: Graeme Smith, McGowan, Carey, Barron, McShane.