SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR
Shaughnessy is left to rue costly late slip-ups as Buddies fall at final hurdle in top-six race
IT would have been easy to point the finger of blame at Don Robertson. Manager Jim Goodwin, after all, ended up being sent off after the final whistle for approaching the referee on the pitch and accusing him of costing St Mirren a place in the top six.
Captain Joe Shaughnessy, however, preferred to focus on the Paisley outfit’s own failings when combing over the debris of a disastrous period which saw them caught at the very last by St Johnstone and denied, on goal difference, the post-split thrill of potentially competing for Europe.
Shaughnessy was adjudged to have fouled David Moyo in the final minute of the regulation 90 for the free-kick that led to Accies substitute Kyle Munro cancelling out Jamie McGrath’s first-half opener from the penalty spot and sealing the visitors’ fate.
Never a foul, insisted Goodwin. However, Shaughnessy was also part of the rearguard that defended the resultant free-kick so badly by putting three men in the wall to leave Hamilton with a man spare — and wasn’t willing to shy away from that.
Neither was he willing to hide from the reality that this was a failure weeks in the making from a team that just wasn’t capable of putting together enough of a push when the finishing line came into sight.
One win in eight has proved costly with consecutive draws at home against Accies, Livingston and Motherwell last month identified by Shaughnessy as the primary reason for a campaign of great promise concluding in disappointment.
‘It’s sickening really,’ said the 28-year-old former St Johnstone man. ‘We didn’t do enough in the game (against Hamilton) and should’ve put it to bed. We had enough chances.
‘But we shouldn’t even have let it come down to this. We had four games at home last month and we didn’t get enough points. I think we drew three and won one. It wasn’t that goal there that cost us. It was those games and not putting enough points on the board.
‘We just didn’t do enough today and over the last six weeks or whatever.
‘We had enough time to do it. It should never have come down to the last five minutes of the Hamilton game.
‘St Johnstone have been on a brilliant run, and that kind of sums up the season they’ve had
— winning the cup and getting into the top six. They’ve done very well and we’ve stumbled. We’ll just need to learn from it and use it as experience from going forward.’
For all that, it is worth mentioning that Shaughnessy did feel harshly treated by Robertson for the free-kick that changed the game and the entire shape of Saints’ season. ‘I wouldn’t have thought it was a free-kick, but he’s seen something,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a clean header.
‘Most of the game there were headers like that and he hasn’t given them. We should still have dealt with the free-kick better, though. Our set-up wasn’t good and they had the spare man.’
The beneficiary was 19-year-old Munro, just one inspired substitution on the afternoon by Brian Rice.
Having watched his side play second-fiddle in the first half, Rice went to four at the back after the break and put Moyo on for Ben Stirling to go toe-totoe with the St Mirren defence.
Although chances were hardly ten-a-penny, it did, at least, lead to Accies getting a foothold in the game.
It was Munro’s introduction that really made the difference. Only brought on for the last 10 minutes, he provided a dangerous cross that both Moyo and Ronan Hughes failed to connect with yards from goal and then stole in at the back post to bullet home a header that keeps Accies just a point behind Kilmarnock at the bottom.
Munro was found guilty of costing the side a goal in last weekend’s loss at Livingston, but Rice admitted afterwards that he loves the lad’s ability not to take things personally and learn from his mistakes.
‘The first goal last week was
fault,’ said the youngster. ‘It is just about going into training, keeping my head down and working hard, and, hopefully, that rectifies those errors in my game.
‘It’s quite a booster, coming on and scoring the goal. I was free at the back, nobody was marking me. It was harder to miss, in a sense, because there was nobody round about me.’
Of course, Munro also seems to have a liberal dollop of the never-say-die spirit of Accies within him. It has kept them up in recent years and will be required in decent quantities over the remaining five matches of the campaign.
‘That’s the way hamilton are,’ he said. ‘We just keep going to the final whistle. every game is a cup final. Maybe in the first half, we weren’t the greatest team, but in the second half we came out, I thought we were all over them and deserved a point. Maybe even a win.’