St Mirren’s grip at the top of the First Division continues without the blemish of a loss. But as their manager, Gus McPherson, was to accept, his side rode their luck in achieving it. And not, by his own reckoning again, for the first time this season.
Equally candidly he recognised that much of his side’s good fortune lay squarely at the door of his goalkeeper, Craig Hinchcliffe. “I don’t think there was a 3-0 margin,” said McPherson. “We’ve got Craig to thank for a magnificent save at the start of the second half. There was not much between the teams during the first half, they looked dangerous on the break. After our second goal, we were able to relax.”
Raith, meanwhile, continue to languish, their failure to deliver goals haunting them yet again. It had their assistant manager, John Hollins, understandably perplexed by the home side dugout, his puzzled look the sign of a man who, for all his many glorious years in the game, will not have encountered too many occasions such as this.
At half-time, his side were 1-0 down and it was unfair. By full time, it bordered on a full-blown travesty of justice. When Raith’s young, new manager Claude Anelka finally emerged from the dressing room, it was to deliver, solemnly, a statement of the obvious. “We tried to play football. But it’s difficult for us to score goals.”
Every time Raith’s hopes rose at the sight of a seemingly goal-bound effort, they were met by Hinchcliffe’s heroics. There had been a moment when he looked fallible, when trying to reach for a Paul Millar free-kick. And, admittedly with his side cruising to the extent that Mixu Paatelainen could afford to miss an open goal with impunity, he was mostly a spectator for the final 30 minutes. However, for the most part he was having to throw his body all over the place.
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With Raith understandably fired up at the start of the second half, he bravely dived at the feet of Herve Ebanda to prevent an almost certain equaliser from close range. But few will have been surprised by it, since he had, during the first half, tipped over a 20-yarder from Moussa Ouattara and redirected, with quick reflexes, a glancing header from the same player onto the crossbar. Top versus bottom? Nothing could have been further from the truth, in terms of form, especially 10 minutes either side of the interval.
When the visitors netted for the first time, through a delicious, curling shot from Simon Lappin, after Brian McGinty’s back heel pass broke loose in the 18-yard box, it felt almost like a glitch. Anelka and his players were booed off the pitch at the end, the irony obviously already lost on many considering how cruel St Mirren’s second and third goals had been. As Raith pressed, St Mirren responded with a quick cross from McGinty and an accurate header from 12 yards by Paatelainen. And a few minutes later all hope for the home side suddenly vanished when Jack Perry pulled Lappin down to set up the coup de grace from the penalty spot.
STAR MAN: Craig Hinchliffe (St Mirren)
Player ratings: Raith Rovers: Berthelot 6, Perry 6, Smart 6, Davidson 7, Millar 6, Ouattara 7 (Maxwell 69min, 6), Daley 7, Bartholome 6, Tagro 7 (McAlpine 59min, 6), Sacko 6, Ebanda 6
St Mirren: Hinchcliffe 9, Van Zanten 6, McGowne 7, Millen 6, Broadfoot 6, Murray 7, Reilly 6, O’Neill 8 (Gillies 72min, 6), Lappin 7 (Ellis 84min, 6), McGinty 6 (Russell 65min, 6), Paatelainen 7
Scorers: St Mirren: Lappin 24, Paatelainen 55, McGinty 57pen
Booked: Davidson 60, Sacko 68
Referee: D Somers
Attendance: 2,111