St Mirren 0 - 0 Hamilton Academical: Both teams win in what is a painfully poor, instantly forgettable encounter

EVERYONE was a winner at St Mirren Park yesterday simply because nobody lost, no goals were conceded. Right now, that's about as good as it gets for the Paisley side and their opponents Hamilton. The pair were bound to be content to collect a point in a painfully poor encounter as it puts a little bit more daylight between them and bottom club Falkirk. And, er, that's it from 90 minutes that managed to slide from the memory the instant they passed.

St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson was honest in his assessment. "I see many games and just now they are physical challenges," he said. "It comes down to individual mistakes or missed chances, and Billy (Reid, Hamilton manager] will feel his side created the better chances, and they did, but didn't make the most of them. It was a matter of putting another point on the board. We didn't come anywhere near the standards we have set in recent games. It was night and day with our last game at home. Yet, we lost that to Dundee United."

Reid felt exactly the way MacPherson thought he would, cursing three opportunities that were squandered in the opening quarter of an hour, the most notable of these when James McArthur sliced wide when he was through on goal. "We started really well and with our 3-4-3 against St Mirren's 3-5-2 something had to give, and with our three up front we dominated and should have put the game out of sight with our chances," said Reid.

As a heavyweight battle between teams going belly up, third bottom at home to second bottom, there was always the possibility this would not be a pretty sight. In the seriously struggling corner were St Mirren with no league wins in seven. In the spiralling-downward corner, were the visitors with one victory in the past 12 games in all competitions. Oh, and they'd failed to score in five of their six previous matches. No wonder radio pundit Jim Duffy, when asked to give a prediction, cringed that both teams might be lucky to get nil.

Hamilton, as it turned out, were unlucky to get nil. Early on, McArthur and Dougie Imrie had scoring opportunities that didn't pass muster before a net-bound effort was blocked by Chris Innes, who had to come off injured shortly afterwards. Thereafter, St Mirren began to force their opponents to play in their own half, with Andy Dorman beginning to pop up in dangerous areas and work keeper Tomas Cerny with pops from the edge of the area. Then Hamilton did most of the pressing in the second period, without ever looking piercing. At no time was it ever even shift-an-inch-forward-in-your-seat, never mind edge-of-it stuff. Work rate, as always, was beyond question and that includes the men responsible for the truly entertaining spectacle to be found inside new St Mirren Park: the technical area tusslers.

So much nervous energy was expended by Reid and MacPherson, most of it mauling the fourth official John McKendrick. It was tiring, but horribly compelling, to watch. In fairness, the normally manic MacPherson seemed positive phlegmatic compared to Reid. The Hamilton manager's crazed eyeballing of McKendrick, his ten-to-the-dozen fury-filled barking in his ear, made you wonder, in this week of all weeks, why anyone would want to be involved in this aspect of the game.

It was a miracle McKendrick didn't finish the afternoon with blood seeping from both eardrums, MacPherson and assistant Andy Millen also having their moments. Throughout it all, the official remained detached and composed, appearing part emotional punch bag, part anger management counsellor. It was much ado about a nothing-nothing.

MAN OF THE MATCH

He was substituted with a full 21 minutes remaining but still Andy Dorman showed up better than those around him.

QUICK FACT

Their two goals in the win over Dundee United three weeks ago are Hamilton's only strikes since 23 January.

TALKING POINT

Hamilton like chuntering on about how much they are missing Mickael Antoine-Curier, their top-scoring, six-goal, on-loan striker who will shortly return from injury. But they netted only once in the last five games he appeared in.