SAINTS’ ISSUES ARE CLEAR-CUT
McGinn admits front men must finish off chances to build on side’s solid base
SAM FOLEY played his part to perfection. Seeing Ilkay Durmus coming into the shot out of the corner of his eye, his disguised pass gifted the winger the kind of opening he’d have spent all week dreaming about.
The end result typified St Mirren to date in the Premiership this season. A goalkeeper left unworked, the glaring target missed, the home support looking to the heavens, the scoreboard unchanged.
If the consolation for Jim Goodwin is a defence that’s now doing what it says on the tin, just three goals scored in seven league matches is deeply troubling.
The lack of chances being created is the real issue and prompted the St Mirren boss to ask his players to be ‘more courageous’ on the back of a second successive goalless draw.
The return to full fitness of Danny Mullen and more minutes in the legs of Kyle McAllister should help matters no end. They impressed from the bench here and you’d anticipate starts for both at Fir Park next week as the Buddies go about changing the narrative of their campaign to date.
Mullen’s deft touch in injury-time set up fellow substitute Jonathan Obika. In keeping with the way things are in Paisley at the minute, the Englishman’s curling effort also went the wrong side of the far post just before referee Andrew Dallas signalled the end of a match which was more engrossing than the scoreline suggested.
Notwithstanding a tame Kyle Magennis effort and a Tony Andreu strike which was correctly ruled offside in the first half, that was the sum total of St Mirren’s efforts in the final third.
Considering a weary Hearts side were forced to replace both Loic Damour and Craig Halkett in the first half, the deep sense of frustration in the home ranks was understandable.
‘I’ve played in this league a long time now and, apart from Celtic and Rangers, sides don’t get many clear chances per game. So we’ll need to start taking them,’ warned defender Paul McGinn.
‘It comes with confidence. It’s getting to the stage where everyone is too eager and doesn’t have the calmness to take that extra touch, chop it or show that bit of quality.
‘Hopefully, it will come. It can’t keep staying out of the goal.
‘Danny Mullen was excellent when he came on. He made a bit of a difference. He’s now sharp having had a wee issue with his ankle.
‘There are boys who are just getting used to the league. I don’t want a worldly. One wee minging goal would do... a wee shin-roller.’ Saints are a team cast in their manager’s own image. Goodwin didn’t get too many goals as a player but, boy, he did know how to keep sides at bay. While the Paisley boss did have Vaclav Hladky to thank for winning a point with a superb reflex save to deny Christophe Berra’s flashing volley, his defenders stood up to the formidable challenge posed by Uche Ikpeazu. The significant crumb of consolation is that the six league goals they have conceded to date is a record bettered only by Celtic and Rangers. ‘When the manager came in, he said that all the best teams build from the back,’ explained McGinn. ‘We’ve got a few new bodies but, towards the end of last season, we started to defend quite well and that’s maybe helped.
‘Hopefully we can do it a bit more on the road. We’ve been really solid here — (Borna) Barasic’s free-kick for Rangers is the only one I can think of.
‘It is a good sign but draws aren’t really enough.’
This was one of those occasions when neither side was inclined to look at a share of the spoils in a positive light.
On the back of morale-boosting victories over Hibs in the league and Aberdeen in the Betfred Cup, Hearts arrived here expecting to wrap up the perfect week with another win.
Setting up with a 3-4-2-1, their intention was clear — to dictate the game and allow Japanese playmaker Ryotaro Meshino to carve out openings where possible.
But the on-loan Manchester City midfielder had next to no impact on the contest.
Even allowing for a period of adjustment, Craig Levein is entitled to expect more from a player who has arrived at the club with a reputation for being a supreme technician.
The Hearts manager must also wonder what on earth he’s done to merit such a wretched run of misfortune through injuries.
Already shorn of John Souttar, Ben Garuccio, Conor Washington, Steven Naismith, Jamie Walker, Craig Wighton and Peter Haring, seeing Halkett hobble off early with medial ligament damage and Damour succumb to a hamstring problem truly beggared belief.
‘It must just be bad luck,’ said defender Michael Smith.
‘We have had the training pitches tested for hardness, they are perfect. We have no complaints about training pitches.
‘I can’t put my finger on it. No one can, otherwise we would have changed something to cut them out. It is not going away.’
Those in maroon who made it through the contest unscathed saw plenty of the ball but failed to really penetrate a miserly home defence.
Berra had a pair of efforts before the break, Steven MacLean was painfully close to clipping home Ikpeazu’s delicious pass late on but otherwise Levein’s men were restricted to shots from distance by Aaron Hickey and Glenn Whelan.
‘We looked a little short of ideas in the final third today,’ conceded Smith.
‘Maybe a few boys were a bit leggy after the emotional week we have had.
‘Probably before the Hibs game, we would have snapped your hand off for these three results — but after the win at Hibs and in the cup game against Aberdeen the other night — we came here in good form and I thought we would have won it.’ ST MIRREN (4-4-1-1): Hladky 7; P McGinn 6, Broadfoot 7, McLoughlin 7, Waters 7; Magennis 6, Flynn 6, Foley 6, Durmus 5 (McAllister 70); Andreu 6 (Mullen 62); Morias 5 (Obika 62). Subs not used: Lyness, MacKenzie, S McGinn, Djorkaeff. Booked: P McGinn. HEARTS (3-4-2-1): Pereira 6; Halkett 4 (Berra 25) Smith 7, Hickey 6; Morrison 6, Damour 5 (Irving 39) Whelan 7, Mulraney 6; Meshino 4 (White 77),MacLean 6; Ikpeazu 6. Subs not used: Doyle, Bozanic, Clare, Keena. Booked: Hickey. Man of the Match: Vaclav Hladky. Referee: Andrew Dallas. Attendance: 5,901.