Well, first home game of the season and for the first time in a long time - I've seen Ayrshire's Finest play in a more positive, better behaved manner and not start the game on the back foot. For this game, the Chadwick stand for away fans was closed off and the Perth Saints support were housed at the Chadwick end of the Frank Beattie Stand.
This game was also a test for our newish keeper, Craig Samson, who makes a return to the Theatre after being at St Mirren for 3 years. Samson previously spent 4 years at Kilmarnock many seasons ago, back in 2001 - then he was a second choice keeper to then wearer of the number one jersey Alan Combe. He's back between the sticks and as number one.
First half was really entertaining and action from both sides, however the Perth Saints were the ones being the bad boys and foiled the Ayrshire men on several occasions. One or two fouls were quite bad but instead of carding them, just gave them a telling off and you could tell that home fans were not pleased at this and were shouting boos and "how many more times Ref!"
He was a great keeper throughout the match. Goal opportunities and chances came and went but nobody could make that final third count. So the first half ended 0-0.
After the half time entertainment, the second half kicked off just as good as the first. The only pain was that Paul Heffernan became a bit lazy in picking up the balls from the midfield. St Johnstone players fouling just as much as they did again in the first, home crowd became really got angered by this.
The referee simply did not book the Perth Saints players at all when he should have done, however in complete contrast when one of the Ayrshire men fouled a St Johnstone forward, guess what? The referee booked him to the anger to those in the 3 home stands.
In the last quarter of the match, the boys in their away strip of red and white stripes, got a free kick and it was taken perfectly only to be ruined by a deliberate handball from the St Johnstone players. The ref missed this and ignored the cries coming from the home crowd. That really heated things up however despite St Johnstone trying to capitalise on that, they failed and after 5 minutes of stoppish time - the ref blew the whistle.
Kilmarnock 0-0 St Johnstone.