IT would’ve been fitting for a thriller on Halloween weekend.
Sadly, that was far from the case at McDiarmid Park as St Johnstone narrowly beat Kilmarnock. An own goal in the opening stages from Ash Taylor settled a scrappy affair.
Not that Callum Davidson cared. He was delighted to see his team make it back-to-back wins, as the visitors were left fuming about two VAR calls.
He said: “We had a plan to hit them on the break and to try and expose the space and I thought at times we did it okay in the first half.
“Got the goal. Again, Stevie May, I thought the shift he put in was incredible. First half, the pleasing thing was that we didn’t play particularly well and we’ve come away with three points again.
“That’s two games where I think there’s a lot more in the team but again to come away with six points I’m really happy.
“I think the table is going to be really tight. A couple of games ago we were a point off the bottom so it’s going to be like that all season. I say it all along. There will be highs and lows throughout the season.”
The scoring was opened after four-minutes. After a tackle with Lewis Mayo on the edge of the area, the ball broke to Stevie May on his left foot. He appeared to hit a cross, but this deflected off Taylor and trickled into the far corner of Zach Hemming’s net.
The on-form Saints striker of course claimed it, but it was recorded as an own goal. Still, May’s influence on Davidson’s side remains undeniable.
There was very little between the teams. A short while after the goal Killie began to settle creating a few decent opportunities.
Innes Cameron saw a near-post header at a corner fly over the bar. Moments later, Kerr McInroy thought he’d equalised as his long-range effort curled just wide.
May then had a shot on target but it was a simple catch for Hemming. Cameron forced Remi Matthews into a similar stop up the other end.
McInnes made a change at the break with Liam Donnelly coming on for Mayo in midfield.
It looked like it was going to be a day for own goals. Matthews was forced to scramble to stop a terrible back-pass from Alex Mitchell going in. The defender’s lob would’ve made for an embarrassing gaffe. The keeper then made a decent stop from McInroy at the resultant corner.
There was a lengthy four-minute VAR delay on the hour-mark after Craig Napier sent off James Brown for a late lunge on Donnelly. After being advised to check the monitor, the referee controversially reduced the tackle to a bookable offence.
It looked like it was 2-0 to the hosts when Drey Wright stood the ball up for May at the back-post. Agonisingly for Saints his effort went narrowly wide.
Killie then had the ball in the back of the net with Donnelly sticking it in after Matthew’s flapped at a Danny Armstrong cross. However, Napier ruled it out for a foul in the middle pack of players. VAR agreed.
Derek McInnes did not. After his side’s first defeat in six, he explained: “I’m disappointed in the goal that was ruled out.
“There was no foul on the keeper. If there’s any foul on Stevie May, the contact is minimal.
“The keeper should punch it. He tries to catch it, spills it and the goal should stand. The keeper just needs to be stronger. There isn’t enough for a free-kick.”
On the red card overturn, he added: “I am not here to want players to be sent off. It could be a yellow, it could be a red, it’s on the referee to interpret it.
“For him to take just shy of four minutes to make the decision would suggest it’s not a clear and obvious error.
“We were told VAR would only get involved for that.
“But in defence of the ref, he was given the same angle of the tackle for three and a half minutes.
“We were told there would be different angles of incidents but he kept getting the same one.
“It was so harsh on him. He had to get involved with VAR and came to the decision, but I disagreed with him.”
