The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Saints see lead slip twice in draw
Satisfaction would normally be the overriding emotion after extending an unbeaten run to nine in one of the toughest fixtures of your season.
And when the St Johnstone players take time to reflect on this draw it probably will be.
But twice taking the lead against high-flying Hibernian will make this feel like an opportunity lost to post their best result of their Premier ship campaign – not to mention climb into the top six.
Ali McCann was the first to score but within a minute Paul McGinn had cancelled it out.
Then deep into the second half substitute David Wotherspoon made it 2-1, only for McGinn to level once again.
Take away the who scored first and who scored last factor and this was undoubtedly an excellent result.
It would have been an excellent result had it been Saints’ strongest team on the pitch. The number of injuries to key men made it an even more impressive performance and end-product.
Callum Davidson made four changes to his starting line-up following the weekend draw with Motherwell – three of them forced on him.
Murray Davidson and Craig Conway were expected absentees after their trips to accident and emergency, while Jason Kerr also missed out with a back injury. Wotherspoon was benched.
It meant a league debut for Guy Melamed and recalls for Shaun Rooney, Liam Craig and Michael O’Halloran.
Only five outfield substitutes being listed, one of them young Alex Ferguson, was a reminder of how deep the bite is when a few injuries come the McDiar mid Park squad’s way.
Saints had a bit of early – very early – pressure from their hosts to survive.
Two minutes weren’ t even on the clock by the time Jamie Murphy forced an excellent low save out of Zander Clark and Kevin Nisbet shot over the bar from the edge of the box.
Just a few minutes later, though, the Perth men had a couple of good chances of their own.
First a Craig header wasn’t dealt with by the Hibs defence and Melamed was quick to pick up the loose ball. He failed to keep his shot down, however.
Then, seconds after that, Paul Hanlon coughed up possession in a dangerous area and within a flash O’Halloran was running in on goal, albeit towards the right side of the penalty area.
He drilled a shot past the full dive of Ofir Marciano but his effort shaved the wrong side of the far post. Jack Ross was forced into central defensive change midway through the first half when Hanlon couldn’t play on and was replaced by Darren McGregor.
By this point the game had developed into a scrappy affair, with Saints’ new-look backline doing a decent collective job.
And on one occasion when Hibs did ge t in behind it, after Murphy slid a nicely-weighted pass into the box, Danny McNamara timed a sliding tackle to perfection, ensuring Stevie Mall an didn’ t get the chance to trouble Clark.
Saints were managing to get up the pitch sporadically, often by Stevie May earning his team a free-kick.
Getting Melamed into the game was proving to be an issue but Scott Tanser tried to do just that when he swung a cross in from the left that the Israeli couldn’t quite get his head to.
Another ball from Tanser caused some unexpected panic in the Hibs box, with May at the heart of it, and the end result was McCann latching on to a ball that broke nicely for him, guiding it beyond Marciano with a side-foot finish.
If the script for this game had been written by a Perth hand the 900th top flight goal in the history of the club would have been a match-winner. Unfortunately it only earned Saints a lead for seconds.
Within the blink of an eye after their centre, Hibs were up the pitch and McGinn was scoring with a low shot off the inside of the far post. It was his first for the club and an utterly frustrating waste of a hardearned advantage for the visitors.
Six minutes after the half-time interval Nisbet should have put Hibs in front. There was some quality old-fashioned wing play from Murphy, who teed up the former Dunfermline and Raith Rovers man near the penalty spot. The ball was bouncing but a centre-forward of Nisbet’s pedigree should have at the very least kept his shot on target.
Saints’ counter-attacks were becoming less and less frequent but O’Halloran’s running power was the source of one. He powered his way to the byeline and there was nothing wrong with his cut-back to the near post area.
But, as has too often been the case this season, there wasn’t a finisher on the same wavelength as the provider.
May came much closer to connecting with a cross from the other flank moments later, his stretch just falling short of enabling him to connect in front of goal.
The match was opening up and Joe Newell dragged a 10-yard shot past the post with Clark beaten low to his right.
Wotherspoon came on for Melamed just after the hour mark and he skied an effort over the bar from the edge of the box.
It proved to be some welcome shooting practice for later in the match when he drifted inside from the left on 76 minutes and found the bottom corner with a wonderful shot.
The question was now – could Saints hold on this time?
The answer was no. Hibs got their equaliser on 83 minutes when a ball from the left flew over the heads of attackers and centre-backs alike, and was picked up beyond the back post by McGinn, who smashed his shot home with the aid of a slight deflection.
Saints have made a habit of scoring late at Easter Road but there was no such drama this time and 2-2 it concluded.