Dug-out drama but a dearth of thrills

Mar 10 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

DEREK McInnes and Tony Docherty can expect a call any day now from the House of Commons.

And they can brace themselves for the sort of grilling which had Sir Fred and the bank bosses hot under the collar.

The bookies and fixed odds makers are getting anxious. Six draws from seven games, 11 in an extended 21-game record run and now 12 for the campaign.

Football is meant to be unpredictable but St Johnstone are making life easy for punters scanning the weekend lists.

In the past, it’s a habit which has cost them dear. This season, with their rivals shedding points right left and centre, their resilience has established a four-point advantage in pole position.

But with pressure sure to build as the weeks roll by, fans longing for an end to their exile in the First Division are fretting and wondering why their team hasn’t accelerated away from the chasing pack.

Any team remaining unbeaten over seven months deserves to be cut a bit of slack. But even Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon wouldn’t be able to mask the poverty of attacking ideas in the last two homes games, with the Dundee and Ross County goalkeepers denied the opportunity to perform heroics en route to a point.

Alan Main has been protected by an impenetrable defence, with Kevin Rutkiewicz and Stuart McCaffrey resolute, but the imagination required to probe and pose questions at the other end of the park has been lacking over the last 180 minutes.

Yet again Saints were pedestrian in a first-half which ensured reporters’ notebooks remained largely unsullied.

Things perked up after the interval but an 81st minute spat in the technical area was more exciting than anything on offer within the touchlines.

Derek Adams lodged a not guilty plea after being escorted up the tunnel by the polis, with Saints assistant Tony Docherty offering mocking applause.

The adversaries had jostled for a loose ball and

Adams ended up on the park, wrestling for possession with a bemused Liam Craig.

How did Adams get there? He was (a) bumped (b) slipped or (c) pushed.

Take your pick, but Mr Docherty has that look of innocence off pat.

On the pitch, Ross County came for a point and got it. They had one sniff in the ninth minute when Steven Craig stubbed his toe and shot from 20 yards. They ran the ball into a corner in stoppage time to preserve the stalemate.

The onus was on Saints to negotiate a way through the barrier erected by the Staggies and while Collin Samuel occasionally located areas of a battered park which didn’t conspire against dribbling and fired one drive wide, Saints again failed to get shots on target to examine the goalkeeper’s credentials.

Debutant Graham Barrett worked the backline, dragged one attempt wide and found Soutar barring his way in the 2st minute. But that was your lot until half-time. Things could only get better but any improvement was marginal.

Kevin Moon almost worked a rare opening minutes after the interval but while Samuel turned his marker, Corrigan’s brilliantly timed tackle denied the winger a shooting chance in front of the target.

All too often, Saints opted for predictability, flinging in diagonals aimed at Derek Holmes and hoping to feed off the scraps.

The centre did have one chance in 75 minutes when he got on the end of a Gary Irvine cross only to power his header straight at Soutar.

Sub Gavin Swankie produced the best cross of the day minutes earlier, picking out Samuel at the back post.

But the header, which was aimed at Holmes and Stevie Milne inside the six-yard box, struck a defender.

St Johnstone: Main, Irvine, Craig, Moon (Hardie 80), Rutkiewicz, McCaffrey, Millar (Swankie 67), Samuel, Holmes, Barrett (Milne 67) and Sheerin. Subs not used: Byrne and McLean.

Ross County: Soutar, Corrigan, Golabeck, McCulloch, Dowie, Watt, Hart, Lawson (Scott 80), Craig, Brewster (Keddie 89) and Higgins (Daal 59). Subs not used: Gardyne and Malin.

Referee: Eddie Smith.