Saints fail to settle tie at first time of asking
ST MIRREN would have ensured that they would have t opped thei r Betfred Cup group with a game to spare with a victory here, a result which looked nailed on at half- time.
Jim Goodwin’s side had been utterly dominant during that period and deservedly led but their familiar failing in front of goal came back to bite them yet again as they ran out of steam and Morton came back to take the tie into a penalty shoot- out.
In the end, goalkeeper Jak Alnwick was their key man, saving from Kyle Jacobs and Josh McPake to edge them one point clear of Queen of the South. Jamie McGrath, Dylan Connolly, Lee Erwin, Sam Foley, Marcus Fraser converted for the home side to secure a bonus point.
Should they lose to Queen’s Park at Hampden on Saturday, Saints can still be caught by Partick Thistle but they will expect to go through to the knockout stage now.
“We did everything we spoke about before the game in terms of getting the ball wide and putting balls into the box and we had two or three other really good chances to add to the good goal we scored,” said manager Jim Goodwin. “Morton came out with all guns blazing in the second half and didn’t allow us time on the ball to pick out passes.
“Without making too many excuses, you could see the fatigue setting in: we had a really tiring game against Dundee United here on Friday and the lads have had only half- a- dozen sessions in the last four weeks.”
Their chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick had yesterday defended the club against SPFL allegations that they had breached Covid- 19 regulations last month, leading to their Premiership fixture against Motherwell being postponed. They will discover in a few weeks whether or not they will face sanctions.
The home side had the first half- chance after only three minutes but leading goalscorer Obika’s shot on the turn from eight yards was comfortably gathered by goalkeeper Aidan McAdams.
Buddies right- back Richard Tait was shown a yellow card ten minutes later for a clash with Lewis Strapp, with the Morton full- back protesting loudly that he had been punched.
McAdams produced a fine one- handed save to keep out Junior Morias’s rising drive as the traffic continued to flow in the direction of his goal.
Cameron Blues joined Tait in referee Bobby Madden’s notebook midway through the first half for chopping down Saints captain Sam Foley. From the resulting free- kick the ball worked its way to Obika, who was denied once again by McAdams. More than most matches, derbies suffer from the absence of vocal, partisan supports but this encounter could hardly have been more competitive if the stadium had been packed with baying fans.
Kyle McAllister almost broke the deadlock with a free- kick which bounced awkwardly and struck McAdams on the face but the ball was cleared before any of the home players could get to the rebound.
The hosts ought to have scored in the 36th minute when Joe Shaughnessy’s deep cross
from the left Marcus Fraser on the corner of the six- yard box but the unmarked full- back misread the flight of the ball and shanked his effort wide.
A goal was inevitable, however, and it finally arrived six minutes from the interval in the simplest way imaginable, a corner from McAllister which was bulleted home from pointblank range by Obika.
It was too one- sided to have been a classic clash but, with only one goal in it, there was at least faint hope for the visitors, although they had shown little to encourage any.
In fairness, they were more positive after the break ( they could hardly have been less so) and Alnwick was forced to fingertip a looping effort from Aidan Nesbitt.
Nesbitt was clearly unhappy when he was replaced six minutes later by MacIver but the latter made an immediate impact when he headed behind Alnwick after Markus Fjortoft had nodded on Strapp’s throwin.
It was a shock to the system for Saints, whose earlier superiority had by now become a fading, sepia- tinted memory and McPake, was inches away from immediately announcing his arrival with a goal when his angled drive fizzed past Alnwick’s right- hand post in the 76th minute.