A tale of two spot-kicks

A disputed late penalty from Liam Craig gave St Johnstone a share of the points in a hard fought encounter at Easter Road.

Manager John Hughes made three changes to the team which lost narrowly at Motherwell last week. Out went Gow, Cregg and Rankin who were replaced by Riordan, Nish and McBride. Liam Miller retained his place in midfield after winning his appeal against last week’s red card at Fir Park.

Hibs’ recent run of three defeats paled into insignificance for many fans before the game, as they took part in a minute’s applause to remember former heroes Alan Gordon and Bobby Smith, who both died in the last few days.

The game kicked off in front of a larger than usual crowd in the east stand, with fans determined to sample to unique atmosphere one last time, before the bulldozers move in. They did not have long to wait as the home side took the lead from the penalty spot in the first minute. An excellent one-two with Anthony Stokes saw Colin Nish clean through on goal, before he was brought down by Saints keeper Graeme Smith. To the amazement of everyone in the ground, Referee Alan Muir failed to brandish the expected red card, and let the keeper off with a yellow. Stokes coolly dispatched the spot kick to give the home side an early lead, sparking wild celebrations in the east stand. For the remainder of the first half, the fans went through their repertoire of songs from the past, including tributes to past heroes such as Franck Sauzee, Mickey Weir and even Joe Tortolanno.

On the field, both teams created chances with Derek Riordan going close for the home team whilst Kenny Deuchar almost equalised for the visitors, before the first half drew to a close.

St Johnstone started the second half well with both David McKay and Cillian Sheridan going close. On the hour mark, the visitors claimed a penalty after a tussle between Davidson and Hogg, but the referee waved play on to the relief of the home fans. Derek Riordan almost doubled Hibs’ advantage on 70 minutes with a great shot which was well save by Smith. Two minutes later, Riordan rounded the keeper only to see his goal-bound effort deflected for a corner. Nish should have wrapped the points up after a slide-rule pass from Miller left him clear in the box, but the ball got stuck under his feet, and the chance was wasted.

With six minutes remaining, St Johnstone were awarded a hotly disputed penalty after the ball appeared to strike Liam Miller’s hand inside the box. Referee Muir, who had infuriated both sets of fans throughout the game pointed to the spot and Liam Craig made no mistake from 12 yards.

Both teams could have won the game in the last few minutes, but in the end, a draw was a fair result.
After the game, boss Hughes diplomatically refused to answer questions about whether the St Johnstone goalkeeper should have been sent off although Graham Stack was less inhibited, telling The Journal “How a goalkeeper can bring a centre forward down in the box and not get sent off is beyond me. They would have struggled with only ten men for 89 minutes, believe me.”