The first half was absolutely dire. The tactics were wrong, the performance was flat and there was little fight, dig or effort from the Saints players. Hamilton missed a golden chance to score then, with three minutes left, they did. Fortunately, there was still a half to go - but with 30 minutes left we were still behind.
Then things changed. David van Zanten whipped in a cross that Higdon stopped to head in from a couple of yards. Seconds later Craig Dargo was tumbling inside the box and as Martin Canning walked, Higdon scored from the spot. The icing on the cake came when Dargo produced a cross that was met with an equally majestic volley from Higdon as he completed a remarkable treble.
It is a huge, huge step towards SPL survival - but we're not there yet. We must keep playing like we did in that second half spell and if we can do that in our next four or five games (let's ignore the trips to the Old Firm) then we will hopefully be safe.
There was a nice surprise for those of us who use the press facilities as chocolate doughnuts were a welcome addition to the pre-match grub. Sadly, that was where the niceties ended as Aaron Mooy was left on the bench in favour of Hugh Murray. David van Zanten replacing Marc McAusland was fair enough, but the line-up meant we had Michael Higdon up front on his own with Paul McGowan having to do the running from midfield. Hamilton went for Nigel Hasselbaink instead of Mickael Antoine-Curier as their loan striker, with Alex Neil, Gary McDonald and Jim McAlister in midfield.
There was a big crowd at Greenhill Road for this one, but anyone expecting sexy football had come to the wrong place. It took over 15 minutes for either side to have a chance and when Ali Crawford found himself unmarked inside the Saints box, he seemed to hesitate just enough to allow Jure Travner back to block his shot. Travner was then fouled by McDonald as he tried to burst clear down the left, earning the former Aberdeen midfielder a booking.
Perhaps our defence didn't think there was any need to mark fair haired players in the first half. After leaving Crawford to do his thing, they did exactly the same to McAlister after terrific work on the right from Hasselbaink. This time it was Paul Gallacher who came to the rescue as the keeper blocked the shot. It wasn't pretty stuff but a rare Saints chance arose when Jim Goodwin showed a rare bit of dig to win the ball and feed Michael Higdon. Paul McGowan was screaming for the ball but Higdon decided to try one of his world beaters from 30 yards. Once in a while they fly into the top corner, not surprisingly this one flew wide.
Things began to happen just before the break - and not in a good way. We managed to force our first corner but McLean's delivery was again poor and Hamilton were able to break. It looked as if McGregor had things covered but he made a hash of it and the Flavio variety of Paixao was clean through on Gallacher. Inexplicably, he tried to lift the ball over Gallacher and didn't get anywhere near enough on it, allowing the keeper to palm it away. It dropped for Crawford and he had a go with the rebound that went not far away.
We should have been behind and three minutes before the break we were. Hasselbaink tried a shot that was blocked by Goodwin and as the Dutch striker claimed for a penalty, David Buchanan stepped on to the loose ball and pinged it into the top corner from 20 yards. It was a great strike and the Hamilton fans rightly celebrated, while we booed our players off at half-time.
It was understandable. We were playing for a draw, there was no attacking impetus and Hamilton wanted it more. We'd had warnings and, as usual, hadn't heeded them. Unsurprisingly, despite the woeful first half display, Danny Lennon refused to change things at the break. It took us seven minutes to actually do anything of note, McLean finding McGregor with a corner and the defender nodded it down to fellow centre-half Lee Mair, who scuffed his shot into Tomas Cerny's arms. Hamilton - wrongly - took this is as a sign we might be about to do something and cranked the time wasting up a notch.
We did seem to take heart from that chance and Travner soon produced a cross that McLean missed before Thomson volleyed it into the side netting. Hamilton responded by adding play acting to the time wasting before we made a change as Craig Dargo replaced Jim Goodwin. No sooner had that happened than Hugh Murray begin walking a tightrope after he was booked for stupidly pulled back Crawford.
But while he was balancing that tightrope, Shuggy was still able to do something useful - like send van Zanten away down the right to deliver in a superb cross for Higdon to head home from close range. As the fans celebrated, Higdon made the internationally recognised signal for "come on" with his arms. The intentions were clear - we were not settling for a draw.
And a clear sign of that came seconds later. Someone sent a superb long ball over the top for Dargo to get onto - and he did. He was through on Cerny and seemed to have miscontrolled before Martin Canning barged him into the back. As stonewall a penalty and red card as you'll see and for once, Willie Collum obliged. It was then left to Higdon to take the spot-kick and he dispatched it nto the net.
It could surely only go wrong from here. For once, it didn't. 20 minutes from time Dargo was off scampering down the right onto a pass from Vanzy before firing in a cross that Higdon blasted into the net from just outside the box. A truly wonderful goal that would make Man Utd jealous. It completed Higdon's first ever hat-trick, the first ever by a Saint in the SPL and it was also a perfect treble - left foot, right foot, header.
Things died down a bit after that. Dargo volleyed over after being set-up by the hat-trick hero before the big Scouser was withdrawn with 15 minutes left. A bit of a gamble considering our ability to blow winning positions and when Paddy Cregg came on, we let our momentum slip - although Dargo nearly deflected a Cregg shot into the net!
Fortunately, there was to be no late slip up this time. We saw out time comfortably and are now closing in on SPL survival. A first home win since October means we have nine points over Hamilton. We play Aberdeen on Wednesday night and if we could string together back to back wins, we'd almost - almost - be home and dry.
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