WILD AND WACKY
Holt laments loss of lead in ‘horrible’ conditions
THE description of a six-goal thriller as ‘horrible’ initially sounds like a harsh judgment.
Gary Holt can be forgiven his negative verdict. For mistakes in miserable conditions contributed to the bulk of the entertainment as Livingston squandered a 3-1 lead.
The Lions boss did muster some positive spin for the benefit of his players, suggesting to them they had gained a point in Paisley despite coughing up a two-goal lead.
However, Holt admitted he would rather not have endured any dramas and would have had no complaints if referee Nick Walsh had deemed the match unplayable.
‘The conditions would get the game stopped — it was brutal,’ said Holt. ‘It had a hand in goals for both teams.
‘But the pitch was fine, so it was a hard one for the referee. It was gale-force winds, which made it a mockery at times.
‘Centre-backs go for a ball and it goes one way and then the next and it falls between them. So you feel for them.
‘Six goals and plenty of chances. But that was more about mistakes. Some decent finishes but if you look at how we got them, it wasn’t silky football. It was horrible.
‘At 3-1 up, you should see it out and we had to deal better with balls into the box. But we knew they wouldn’t lie down, so credit to St Mirren.’
Holt had expressed pre-match fears that the biting wind and incessant rain could make the action tortuous at times.
The awful weather probably had Houston Dynamo target Vaclav Hladky dreaming of Texas.
An early kick upfield started drifting back in his direction and what looked like a harmless punt from Ricki Lamie caught the breeze, bounced over Hladky’s head and required a race to retrieve.
The fierce wind was against the keeper and did Ryan Flynn few favours, as well. Drawn inside from right-back, Flynn’s ponderous attempts to clear a wavering ball were pounced on by Aymen Souda.
The winger punished the error by firing a powerful, low drive into the bottom corner of Hladky’s goal from the edge of the box.
For teenage debutant Scott Glover, in for injured Saints skipper Paul McGinn, there was a baptism of fire against the bruising Lyndon Dykes.
Jim Goodwin’s defence was creaking as Dykes towered over Flynn — and Hladky’s fingertips brushed the header inches over.
Goodwin recently asked for more from his strikers to help steer Saints clear of trouble and the partnership of Jon Obika and Junior Morias responded here.
Obika’s pestering presence paid dividends on 33 minutes as the home side drew level.
The striker stole from the feet of Lamie — and Morias read the script, darting to meet the delivery just on the six-yard box and tucking home his second league goal.
Livingston, though, stunned Saints with a sucker punch seconds before the interval, with the bonus of the wind at their backs.
Craig Sibbald whipped in a free-kick for Jon Guthrie to ghost unopposed beyond the Saints defensive line and glance a touch past Hladky.
Livvy took a typically direct route to their third goal, which arrived 12 minutes into the second half. However, the deadly end-product was most pleasing on the eye after Matija Sarkic’s launch up the park and Dykes rising to flick on.
Souda sped on to the headed assist to control sweetly with his right then drilled home at the near post with his left boot. The French-Tunisian was without a goal since the Betfred Cup group stage in the summer. Now he had two in one disgusting winter afternoon. Obika helped himself to a double, too, as St Mirren dragged their way back into the contest and kept themselves three points clear of the relegation spots.
The former Spurs prospect’s penalty-box instincts were at play as he stuck out a leg to react to substitute Tony Andreu’s wayward drive at goal as keeper Sarkic was wrong-footed.
Goodwin’s second substitute Cody
Cooke barely touched the ball but made an impact as the home side drew level.
A replacement for Glover as Goodwin reshuffled to three at the back, Cooke was thrust up front and placed the shaky Livingston defence into a greater state of unease.
Cooke and Obika barged into each other as they went for a delivery from the left and the latter recovered to seize on the spare ball.
His snapshot spun off a deflection and looped over Sarkic to complete the comeback and take Obika’s goal tally to five for the season. His boss is confident more will follow.
‘I’m delighted for the big man,’ said Goodwin. ‘Questions were asked of the strikers earlier in the season but I was confident the goals would come. I’m delighted to see them both start to hit the net.’