The sinners dominate with cards galore in battle of the two Saints

With seven yellow cards and enough meat in the challenges to satisfy any carnivore, this meeting of the Saints was quite an unholy affair, especially as there were no haloes to award to goalscorers.

The match was never less than intriguing, with plenty of effort – especially in the tackle – and often some clever one touch football and the kind of passing play that isn’t supposed to exist in Scotland. The majority of it was evinced by St Mirren, but St Johnstone did their share of good work, and the major problem was the lack of goals which meant that an entertaining match never became a top-class one.

“They just didn’t happen,” said St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes. “Our goalkeeper didn’t have a save to make in the first half, and when we won the ball we didn’t punish them.”

St Johnstone welcomed back Chris Millar after his recovery from a hip injury, while St Mirren manager Danny Lennon gave a first start to Dutch youth international defender Illias Haddad, who went on to have a fine game, looking composed throughout.

“I’m a very relaxed guy,” said the likeable Haddad, who has signed on until January. “I like the club, and want to continue to play in Scotland or England. We’ll see what happens.”

The first half opened with St Mirren playing into a swirling gusty west wind that notably abated later in the match. Though the ball held up in the wind numerous times, the passing skills of both sides were affected more by the players rushing to get forward, only for too many balls to go astray in the final third.

At first St Johnstone were less than clever about clearing their lines as St Mirren pressed, but it was 15 minutes before either side created a serious chance though Chris Millar and Steven Thompson should both have done better with early shots.

Haddad did well to stop Liam Craig getting in a shot, while at the other end a Gary Teale free kick from nearly 30 yards after 25 minutes flew inches over the bar. For a while it looked as though he, Nigel Hasselbaink and Paul McGowan would take over the running of the match. St Johnstone usually stopped them in their tracks, however, though if the superb one-two by Hasselbaink and McGowan had ended with the former scoring instead of shooting wide, the match would have been entirely different.

Craig Samson did well to parry a Cillian Sheridan snapshot, Jamie Adams unable to direct the rebound goalwards, before a piece of individual brilliance by Hasselbaink saw the little striker whirl and fire in a curving shot that went just over Peter Enckelman’s left upright.

The second half was pretty much a carbon copy of the first, St Mirren having more of the play but St Johnstone having their own spells of dominance. After Hasselbaink forced a fine save from Enckelman, McGowan blasted the rebound straight at a wall of defenders.

The visitors pressed upfield more, but St Mirren still looked the more likely side to score, and a McGowan shot from 25 yards forced Enckelman into a fine save before Thompson blasted over from 16 yards out.

Between those two chances, Sheridan’s less than impressive afternoon ended when he clattered into van Zanten. He was booked, but compounding his misfortune was the fact that he was already set to be hooked by his manager, Carl Finnegan replacing him.

By now St Johnstone had developed something of a “they shall not pass” mentality and some of their tackling was far too tough, Maybury being lucky to see just yellow after scything through van Zanten.

Substitute Jon McShane looked useful in his short time on the field, and headed over from 15 yards in the 85th minute. The last real effort came in injury time when Sandaza curled one from distance, though Samson had it covered and watched it sail by.

“It was a hard-earned point,” said Chris Millar, “because St Mirren are a decent passing side.”

St Johnstone are not too bad in that department either, and both sides did attempt to play a passing game, but how the crowd would have loved to have seen as may goals as yellow cards.