Top flight in sight

Apr 7 2009 by Gordon Bannerman, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

I’M not privy to Ian McCall’s schooling but on the weekend evidence presumably Partick Thistle’s manager didn’t excel at arithmetic.

He’s been playing mind games all season, maintaining the Jags are 10 years ahead of schedule by even having the temerity to contest the championship and giving the impression his players are paupers compared with high rollers at McDiarmid Park.

And as the dust was settling on a contest which saw Saints leak their first goal on home soil since November – four minutes from the end with the silverware glistening in the distance – the Jags boss mapped out the Perth team’s schedule and suggested they had to win the lot.

You can be certain that’s the aim of Derek McInnes and his players but the state of play at the top of the table seems to have evaded McCall in the heat of the moment.

Despite draw number 13, Saints remain three points better off than their Glasgow rivals – now surely the only side capable of wrecking their title aspirations – with a chance to double up with a win against Dunfermline tonight in the Fair City.

The excitement may have got the better of McCall.

An adopted son of Glasgow’s trendy West End – home to media luvvies and university types – he projects a scholarly air, complete with clipboard tucked under the arm in the technical area.

Given the dramatic finale, when his star turn, Gary Harkins, trashed Alan Main’s seven game home run without conceding a goal, adrenaline coursing through the veins may masqueraded as victory.

The winger’s well-taken late leveller – the Jags’ first shot on target in a match which failed to live-up to the hype – certainly left the Perth camp nursing a sense of loss.

It had the look of first-goal-the-winner with chances rare at either end.

So when Stevie Milne pounced on a header won by Derek Holmes from a hopeful Liam Craig cross to take a touch and roll a close range finish past advancing keeper Jonathan Tuffy in the 65th minute, home fans in the near-5000 crowd were anticipating taking a giant stride towards an SPL return.

But one of British football’s meanest defences was penetrated in the 86th minute when Harkins embarked on a solo surge and defeated Main with a precise angled shot which found the far corner. Thistle fans behind the goal enjoyed the view.

Earlier a McInnes substitution hinted at a desire to restrain Harkins and preserve the single goal advantage, with Steven Anderson on for Collin Samuel.

But having levelled out of the blue Thistle sensed there might even be a winner in it, having previously rued a Simon Donnelly sitter.

With Saints on the ropes, it took a courageous block from Kevin Rutkiewicz to close down Chaplain’s strike in stoppage time and prevent the Jags ending their 17-year wait for a win in Perth to draw level in pole position.

They’d started aggressively but in the 14th minute Stuart McCaffrey had time to take aim from 16 yards, only to slam a fierce drive past the target.

Then Martin Hardie – starting his first game since December and relishing the novelty – curled a free-kick at Tuffy before hammering a low 25-yarder narrowly wide after Samuel and Kevin Moon engineered the opening.

The Jags keeper is highly regarded but he was almost fooled by an in-swinging Liam Craig corner which Samuel headed over.

The title rivals were unable to generate the quality and excitement the occasion deserved but Rutkiewicz should have done better with a header from a Paul Sheerin free-kick 10 minutes before Milne demonstrated his predatory powers.

Despite McCall’s calculations, it’s still advantage Saints with six games left. But a win over Dunfermline tonight would provide welcome breathing space.

St Johnstone: Main, Irvine, Craig, Moon, Rutkiewicz, McCaffrey, Samuel (Anderson 74), Hardie (Swankie 84), Holmes, Milne (Barrett 84) and Sheerin. Subs not used: Gartland and McLean.

Partick Thistle: Tuffey, Storey, Twaddle, Paton, Robertson, Archibald, McKeown (Chaplain 49), Rowson, Akins (Donnelly 71), Doolan (McKinlay 84) and Harkins. Subs not used: Maxwell and Hinchcliffe.

Referee: Alan Muir.