It was a good, solid performance from Saints. Nothing flashy or fancy, just digging in, frustrating Hibs a wee bit and then looking a bit more threatening as the game went on. There was some good defending, although we could do with being a bit more creative. However, we were playing Hibs and we managed to keep danger men like Anthony Stokes and Derek Riordan pretty quiet for much of the afternoon.
The two former Cowdenbeath players who started, Gareth Wardlaw and Darren McGregor, were tremendous - despite Wardlaw getting lumps kicked out of him and then getting booked when he threatened to do the same. Marc McAusland was great in midfield, Garry Brady wasn't bad and Craig Dargo scored a poacher's goal. What more could you want from a Sunday afternoon?
Changes were expected after another cup disaster but it's fair to say the two Danny Lennon made were not the ones many Saints fans would have gone for. Michael Higdon was missing, presumed injured, so Gareth Wardlaw made his return from injury by going straight back into the side. The only other change was Garry Brady, who came in for Sean Lynch. No, I didn't understand that one either, but then it seemed we were going with a 3-5-2 with Darren McGregor at the back alongside John Potter and Lee Mair. Once again, we had no strikers in the bench - although as we were starting with three, that might not have been as big a problem as it could have been. Hibs also started with three and it's fair to say Derek Riordan, Anthony Stokes and Colin Nish are more likely to have defenders worrying than any strikeforce we could chose.
This was an odd game for Sky to choose to broadcast to the nation and the opening 15 minutes did little to dispel that view before Edwin de Graaf's powerful effort flew just wide following a Derek Riordan corner. Brady did something constructive when he decided to pass, rather than keep running until he was tackled, to Craig Dargo after some slack Hibs play. His cross went all the way over to McAusland, who played the ball back to Dargo, but for some reason he passed rather than try a shot. It was the wrong move as Hibs pounced and attacked before McGregor was deemed (wrongly in my view) to have fouled Stokes. Riordan's free-kick looked pretty good, but it went the wrong side of the post (or the right one, if you're a Saints fan) as Paul Gallacher, rather than the ball, ended up in the net.
It was no surprise a lack of pace saw Brady get himself a booking, although worryingly it was Sol Bamba who strolled past him before Brady clipped his heels. Good play by McAusland allowed him to play to McGregor, who's cross was just out of Dargo's reach. Riordan then produced a free-kick that looked slow but had a heck of a lot of swerve as Gallacher suddenly had to stretch out to palm it to safety. Another Riordan free-kick, following a booking for McAusland after he flattened Paul Hanlon, was punched away by the man in the pink top.
The sight of Brady taking a free-kick is usually a worrying one but his delivery was decent, although the flying bodies of Dargo and Mair just failed to connect. Seconds later, Brady put in another fine cross but Wardlaw's header was never in danger of being on target. Normally such an effort would not merit mention on here but it was pretty much our only chance of the half. It's a shame Sky's new dressing room camera doesn't have sound...
It didn't make much difference at the start of the second half as Hibs looked far more likely to score, Stokes comfortably beating Mair and passing to Nish, only for McGregor to produce a great tackle. Wardlaw was then clobbered by Thicot but somehow escaped a booking for his challenge, which was far worse than Brady's earlier one on Bamba. The former postie (a phrase that must be trotted out in every match report this season) was getting some rough treatment and was then fouled by Hogg, but play continued. So, seconds later, Wardlaw did almost exactly the same to Bamba - and got booked. The wonders of the SFA. Danny Lennon was less than impressed by what was blatantly unfair treatment and had to be calmed down by ref Stevie O'Reilly after he ranted at the fourth official, who was our old pal Eddie Smith. Yes, the one we usually get for Celtic games.
So, after all that, when Bamba produced an almost identical foul on Wardlaw he'd be booked, right? Wrong. However, the great karma god was clearly a bit perturbed by what he (or she) was witnessing and decided to allow Brady to take a decent free-kick. The veteran dinked the ball to the edge of the box, McGregor got the knock down and Dargo reacted quickest, slamming the ball past Brown for his first goal since October. Maybe an unjust lead, but then after some of those refereeing decisions I couldn't really care.
de Graaf got himself booked for a foul on Brady after the restart as John Hughes replaced the ineffectual Hanlon with Danny Galbraith. It needed some good defending to keep out a couple of close in shots from Nish, although the second saw a goal kick given. The lack of strikers once again reared its ugly head when the knackered Dargo had to go off and was replaced by Sean Lynch as McGowan moved up front. Hibs then made their own changes, with John Rankin replacing Thicot and Ian Murray replacing Riordan, the latter rather odd change seeing Hibs get plenty of boos from his own fans. We then got another decent free-kick from Brady (I reckon that's three), but this time McGregor headed wide.
McGowan seemed to be giving the impression the ball was glued to his feet whenever he got it and that allowed him to work the space to have a shot from 30 yards. Like Riordan's earlier free-kick it had no power, however it also had no bend and so was easy for Brown to deal with. We then saw some more classic officiating as the main stand linesman took 10 seconds to decide which way a throw in had gone before randomly picking Hibs. The officials had one more trick up their sleeves as they mysteriously found four minutes of stoppage time, which began with David van Zanten replacing McAusland. Cheesy is not a right wingback, but he had done pretty well considering that is not his position.
It may have been a time wasting decision, but it wasn't needed. Hibs didn't come close to threatening us and we comfortably took our first victory of the season. It was fully deserved as we dug in when things threatened to get a bit sticky at the start of the second half and produced a goal when one was needed.
It's still not that much different to under Gus MacPherson, but that's irrelevant at this stage. As we head into the break we've got four points from games against Dundee United, Celtic and Hibs. How many of us would have taken that before the season started?