Goodwin is concerned as Buddies falter again
JIM GOODWIN bemoaned the lack of urgency in his St Mirren side after a disappointing draw away to Lowland League team East Kilbride.
The Paisley club have managed just one win out of three against lower league opposition in their Betfred Cup group stage campaign.
Their failure to win the bonus point in the penalty shootout against East Kilbride means it is unlikely Saints will finish top of Group H.
‘I’m disappointed,’ said Goodwin. ‘We expected to win the game and I thought we had enough on the park to do that. We just couldn’t break them down. It’s concerning.
‘In the last two games, you would expect us to dominate possession and be in control but we’re lacking creativity and urgency at the top end of the pitch.
‘The bottom line is we’re the Premiership team playing a team from the Lowland League. We should have enough to win the game.’
Being the Premiership side, it was no surprise to see that Saints were the team in the ascendancy for the majority of the game and they should have taken the lead after 22 minutes through Oan Djorkaeff.
The Frenchman was slipped in behind East Kilbride’s defence by Tony Andreu and was one-on-one with Alan Martin.
However, as he went to pull the trigger, Ryan Sinnamon managed to put in a vital last-ditch tackle to knock the ball away from him.
Andreu continued to pull the strings in the heart of St Mirren’s midfield as he set up Kyle Magennis in the 26th minute.
The winger was able to get around Martin but shot into the sidenetting from a tight angle.
The Kilby keeper produced a double save two minutes before half-time to deny Danny Mullen.
Stephen McGinn’s dinked pass had sent the striker away but his initial shot was blocked by Martin.
The ball rebounded back into Mullen’s path to give him a second bite of the cherry but the result was the same as Martin stayed alert and saved down low to his right.
Saints continued to dominate in the second half but again failed to break East Kilbride down.
Cody Cooke went close in the 74th minute when he nodded Cammy MacPherson’s curling cross inches over the crossbar.
Andreu might have broken the deadlock four minutes later when he created enough space for himself in the box but his shot was deflected behind by Bernard Coll.
Some more fine goalkeeping from Martin denied Jim Kellerman in the 80th minute.
Cooke nodded the ball down to the midfielder, who fired it towards goal through a crowd of bodies but a reaction save from Martin kept up his man-of-the-match performance.
Saints huffed and puffed to find a winner but it ended goalless and went to a penalty shootout.
Cooke saw his spot-kick saved before David Brownlie sent Vaclav Hladky the wrong way to secure the bonus point for East Kilbride.
‘I’m delighted with the effort and performance,’ said their manager Stuart Malcolm. ‘If we play the same as that in our league, we’ll be standing ourselves in good stead.’