I had thought we'd solved the problems of goals in the last few minutes of games - Motherwell's winner at Greenhill Road the only one I can think of this season - but it seems not. Frustratingly, it seems we should have been out of sight after taking an early lead and were made to pay for not taking our chances. That new striker is badly needed.
Having conceded a lot of early goals lately, Saints wasted no time in going on the attack. Cammy Bell denied Steven Thompson before Marc McAusland hit the bar. That forced a corner and when Graham Carey whipped it in, Lee Mair headed home his first goal for the club. Bout time Lee!
We had chances to extend our lead and had a few penalty claims turned down and continued to dominate, forcing Kilmarnock to replace Alex Pursehouse with Zdenek Croca after just half an hour. That seemed to do the job, Dean Shiels seeing a shot turned behind by Craig Samson before Paul Heffernon scored from the corner that followed.
The game was a bit more even now and both teams had chances to win it, Aaron Mooy perhaps wasting the best of the Saints ones. The Buddies looked the more likely winners but, with just minutes remaining, Samson produced a superb lob over Samson to give Kilmarnock victory.
So, for the second year running, we start the New Year with a defeat to Kilmarnock. Last year we were well beaten while today we seemed to be rather unlucky so I suppose that is progress. Our four game unbeaten run is at an end and we must now regroup and hope for a good performance against Hamilton in the cup on Saturday.
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