St.Mirren 5 Ross County 4
Saints and County shared nine goals in an SPL thriller at St.Mirren Park yesterday as a last gasp overhead kick from StevenThompson saw all thee points remain in Paisley.
Danny Lennon suffered a pre-match blow as Paul McGowan suffered a recurrence of a shoulder injury in the warm up and had to be withdrawn from the starting line up. That handed a first home SPL start to Jon Robertson whilst Kenny McLean was deemed fit enough only for a place on the bench.
Losing two players of such creativity was always going to damage Saints and so it proved as the midfield struggled to get a foothold in the first half with County running rings round the home side all over the park.
It was no surprise when Vigurs wriggled through the home defence to lash a fantastic shot past Samson to give the Staggies the lead on 11 minutes, and the highlanders could and should have added to their tally after that only to be hit with a sucker punch from the buddies.
A rare venture up front produced a corner which Steven Thompson rose to flick into the net to hand the buddies an ill-deserved leveller five minutes from the break and in fact he could even have got another a few minutes later as Fraser scrambled the ball away after another header from the Saints hitman.
Lennon would have been counting himself fortunate to escape to the break on level terms but it wasn't to be as a needless free kick conceded on the edge of our own area proved costly as Grant Munro powered in a close range header to give County a 2-1 half time lead they thoroughly deserved.
Danny Lennon suffered a pre-match blow as Paul McGowan suffered a recurrence of a shoulder injury in the warm up and had to be withdrawn from the starting line up. That handed a first home SPL start to Jon Robertson whilst Kenny McLean was deemed fit enough only for a place on the bench.
Losing two players of such creativity was always going to damage Saints and so it proved as the midfield struggled to get a foothold in the first half with County running rings round the home side all over the park.
It was no surprise when Vigurs wriggled through the home defence to lash a fantastic shot past Samson to give the Staggies the lead on 11 minutes, and the highlanders could and should have added to their tally after that only to be hit with a sucker punch from the buddies.
A rare venture up front produced a corner which Steven Thompson rose to flick into the net to hand the buddies an ill-deserved leveller five minutes from the break and in fact he could even have got another a few minutes later as Fraser scrambled the ball away after another header from the Saints hitman.
Lennon would have been counting himself fortunate to escape to the break on level terms but it wasn't to be as a needless free kick conceded on the edge of our own area proved costly as Grant Munro powered in a close range header to give County a 2-1 half time lead they thoroughly deserved.
If the first half was eventful, the second half was quite incredible, 45 minutes which ebbed and flowed both ways and which produced no fewer than six more goals.
A very soft penalty award for a push on Thompson saw Saints restore parity through a well struck Lewis Guy penalty on 54 minutes.
That was to be the strikers last contribution to the game as he was subbed even before the match had resumed, making way for Sam Parkin. Kenny McLean also came on for the ineffectual Robertson and suddenly we had a real game on our hands.
Five minutes after coming on Parkin nodded home a quite fantastic cross from Van Zanten to put Saints in front and incredibly another five minutes after that a McLean strike from 20 yards snuck inside the post to give Saints a 4-2 lead. Three goals in ten minutes had turned the game completely on it's head.
It looked like Saints could add more to the tally as McAusland went agonisingly close to a fifth before a minute of madness at the other end of the park saw the game turn on it's head yet again.
Rocco Quinn was on hand to benefit from slack defending from Saints as he turned a drive past Samson in the 79th minute and almost from kick off a long ball found Quinn on the edge of the area and he screamed a drive past the Ninja and into the corner of the net to incredibly level the game at 4-4.
The drama was not quite over however and in he 90th minute a cute Graham Carey flick found Thompson in the box with his back to goal. There seemed only minimal danger for County but they had not reckoned on the red hot form of the 'hawk as he struck a delightful overhead kick past Fraser to send the home fans wild and ensure that Saints prevailed in a nine goal thriller.
A remarkable afternoon all told, several things to be very pleased about, several causes for concern but every one of the 3706 crowd left the stadium having been well served with a cracker of a match.
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