Craig Brown shuffled the pack tonight and fielded three changes from the last outing.  Out went O’Brien, Murphy and Lasley and in came Saunders, Forbes and Coke.  No doubt the thinking reflected both the expected height in the St Mirren attack and the game against Hearts on Saturday. 

St Mirren kicked off facing a Motherwell defence with a Saunders, Craigan, Reynolds the a back three with Hammell and Hateley deep on the flanks.  Forbes, Jennings and Coke made up the midfield and Humphrey and Sutton were up front.

A first half corner

Neither keeper was troubled for the first twenty minutes.  There were few incursions into either penalty area and the first threat from both teams came from around twenty yards.   Ruddy coped easily with st Mirren’s first long range effort but within a minute we responded with a good direct run from Jennings.  Three balck jerseys were left in his wake as he powered through the centre of the park before laying off a nice ball to Coke.  He shot and Gallagher’s spill was tidied up by Barron.

The same man had another effort on target just after the half hour but we had a bit of a let off when Higdon failed to make contact from six yards and again when Carey blasted wide.  Inside the last of the added minutes referee McDonald awarded St Mirren a hotly contested corner and Ruddy had to be at his best to make the half time score 0-0 with a good stop from a Potter header.

A change was badly needed at the break and by the restart Forbes and Coke were sacrificed for the attacking skills of Murphy and O’Brien.   The game looked little different and, again, neither team looked like scoring.  On the hour it was McPherson’s turn to make a double substitution.  Dorman and Mehmet came on for Higdon and Johnson.   And still neither team looked like making a breakthrough.

Dargo released Dorman and he had only Ruddy to beat but he blasted high and wide.  We returned the favour with a couple of crosses from Humphrey but there were no takers.  O’Brien tried a few mazy runs to ne effect and Saunders has a long range shot on target.

The game began to stretch as both teams tried to snatch a late winner.  McGlinchey was thrown on inside the last ten minutes, Humphrey making way.  We had to survive a couple of late, late scares and headed goal line clearances were needed but a 0-0 was probably the correct result.