All the talk yesterday was about who Saints big name signing to be revealed on Monday, and it seemed the Saints players spent the entire game trying to work out who it was. Names such as Andy Goram, Ged Brannan, Jamie Fullarton, Robbie Winters, Tom Boyd, Paul Lambert and James Grady, the latter who was playing in this match for Ayr, have all been banded about amongst the Saints support. It was Grady who had Ayr's first real chance of the game, although he hit it well wide. A few minutes earlier, Ayr had skimmed the bar with a corner.
Saints had the next good chance and, amazingly, it came from a corner. A decent delivery from Simon Lappin found Greig Denham's header, but Craig Nelson in the Ayr goal was able to force it out for another corner. Such was the excitement of this game that the next chance for the fans to be vocal was when the ref, who had an awful game, fell over. Exciting stuff.
At an Ayr corner there was a small skirmish between Robertson and Chris Kerr, the later once again putting in a terrible display at left back. Robertson shouted for the ball (the entire PDE stand heard him) but Kerr decided to clear it anyway. A few minutes later Saints had a good chance when McGinty shot wide, an effort which was followed by Dunbar shooting when he should have passed to Gillies, who was in space.
The next comical moment came when Grady messed up a simple pass. A man who is hated by most Saints fans, he received a sarcy cheer, something which was repeated when he messed up a header from a corner. At one point, when Grady had the ball, I could hear someone in the North Bank shout "Hit him" and I was in the PDE stand!
On the half hour mark, Stewart Kean had a great chance to give Ayr the lead but Robertson pulled off a superb save. 7 minutes later Ayr did take the lead when Scott Chaplain convincingly put the ball passed Robertson after a receiving a good pass. 1-0, and a goal Ludo probably wouldn't have kept out.
Saints did have two more chances before half time, both coming from Martin Cameron and both were poor. Cameron had a horrendous game and did little better than McGinty. It seemed he wasn't trying and was instead trying to avoid injuring himself so he could play for his new club.
At half time, Paul Rudden came on to replace Dunbar, and a minute into the half Gillies forced a good save from Nelson. Saints played a short corner, never a good idea, and seemed to have won another corner before the linesman decided McGinty had touched the ball last. Hmmm. The decision was rectified a few minutes later when an Ayr defender clearly kept the ball in play and a Saints corner was given! For the next 5 minutes the linesman was slagged by the Saints fans. Well, we had nothing better to do.
Former Saint Iain Nicolson came on after 10 minutes or so and received a mixture of boos and applauds. The boos were from the kids down the front of the PDE stand who really don't know any better, so it was nice to hear Niccy getting a decent reception. Why he didn't get it when he came visiting with Ayr in November I have no idea, as Steven McGarry had got one when he played for Ross County against us in October. Soon after Nicolson's arrival, Gillies was leaving the field on a stretcher after injuring himself. On came Allan Muir for his Saints first team debut, and with his first touch came close to scoring when his shot was well saved by Nelson. With 15 minutes or so remaining, McGinty was repleaced by David McKenna, another young Saint making his first team debut.
It didn't take McKenna long to make an impact. With less than 10 minutes to go, he ran onto a through ball and beautfiully lobbed Nelson to make it 1-1, giving Saints a point they barely deserved. Admittedly, neither team deserved to win the game, however Ayr could afford to sit back as they were leading. The lack of urgency surrounding the Saints team who were losing was ridiculous.
Simon Lappin, Muir, McKenna, Gillies and Robertson were the only players who did well for Saints today. A mixture of incompetence and laziness between the rest of the plkayers was not a good thing to see. With Alloa winning against Ross County, we are 10 points clear of Alloa and Ross County (who are second and third bottom) with 4 games remaining. If we can avoid defeat against Ross County next week, or Alloa lose, we're safe. Let's hope to god that happens as I don't see us winning any of the remaining games if this performance is anything to go by.