Robbo: Where’s Ronaldo when I need him?
Gaffer admits he’d love to have a maverick as Saints grab point
Stephen Robinson lamented the lack of a maverick in his St Mirren ranks as his team toiled to take full advantage against 10 men.
His hard-grafting side battled back from Zak Rudden’s header to pinch a point. Alex Gogic netted four minutes from the end with his first goal in over a year.
The Buddies remain six points ahead of St Johnstone and firmly in the top- six frame.
But a few missed chances whi le dominant during the second period against deep- defending hosts meant they failed to bag a rare away win.
Robinson said: “I don’t know who invented the line that it’s easy to play a ga inst 10 men. Unl e s s you’ve someone like Ronaldo who can win the game on his own!
“It’s difficult unless you’ve players that can go past people, mavericks so to speak. We don’t have that.
“We had lots of chances. But we didn’t test the goalkeeper enough. To move the ball any quicker than what we did was almost impossible on that surface. “St Johnstone are very organised, have a rea l l y great manager in Ca l lum Davidson, so they were really hard to break down.
“You have to credit them as well.” Davidson’s men couldn’t build on an encouraging start as they were reduced to 10 men.
Dan Phillips lost control of the ball and, in his efforts to recover, landed his boot on Ryan Flynn’s ankle.
It was a sore one but ref Craig Napier probably got it right with a yellow. However, Grant Irvine at VAR control had other ideas.
After studying the action again on the monitor, Napier dismissed Phillips on the stroke of half-time.
Theo Bair and Rudden replaced Stevie May and Nicky Clark and it wasn’t wholly popular among home fans.
But it proved inspired. Cammy MacPherson took a free-kick and Rudden produced a great leap and header that kissed off the far post to beat Trevor Carson. Robinson made a trio of changes and one of them, Joe Shaughnessy, teamed up with fellow centre-half Gogic for a leveller. Shaughnessy’s delivery into the penalty box was delicious – and gobbled up by Gogic on the nod from six yards out. Robinson said: “It was an opportunity missed to get another two point s but ultimately we’re a point towards our end goal of finishing in the top six. We’ve managed to keep St Johnstone at arm’s length.”