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Terrific Tait leaves Buddies bouncing

By Graham Swann AT SMiSA STADIUM

AN unlikely hero saved this game from meandering down a likely path. With one tremendous swipe of his right foot, Richard Tait left everyone inside the stadium feeling astonished and, as far as St Mirren supporters were concerned, mightily relieved.

Both teams came into this match pointless following their opening two fixtures in the new Premiership season. Naturally, then, there was a sense that this wasn’t going to be an end-to-end affair. Someone needed to find a spark. Step forward, Tait.

Just six minutes had been played in the second half when the ball rolled out of the box and fell kindly for the 32-year-old left-back. He steadied himself and unleashed a brilliant, curling right-footed shot into the top corner from 20 yards. That’s how you do it.

This was Tait’s first goal in the Premiership for over two years, with his last league effort coming on the opening day of the 2020/21 season.

It’s still early days, of course, but this was a much-needed victory for Saints boss Stephen Robinson following his team’s opening two defeats to Motherwell and Aberdeen.

County are now sitting alone at the bottom of the table. They showed promising signs in their losses against Hearts and Celtic but they lacked a cutting edge in Paisley.

Robinson worked with Tait during his time as Motherwell manager and was delighted to see him deliver the goods with a superb goal.

‘He’s actually done it a few times in training,’ said Robinson. ‘And he scored a couple of decent goals for me at Motherwell as well. He’s technically very good and with both feet, so it was no real surprise.

‘I thought we thoroughly deserved to win. We created a lot of half-chances, we hit the post in the first half as well.

‘But you’re wondering if it’s going to be another of those days and a hard luck story again. It needed a moment of quality to win it.

‘But I thought we were very organised and the boys have got their just rewards for a very good performance today.’

Asked if he believed it was critical to win against County despite it still being early days in the season, Robinson added: ‘We’re only three games in but it was critical for the players’ belief.

‘They read things, so it does mount up a little bit. For the belief in the camp this was great.’

Following Declan Gallagher’s red card in last week’s defeat at Aberdeen, former County defender Marcus Fraser filled in on the right side of St Mirren’s back three in their only change.

Malky Mackay was forced into three switches from County’s loss against Celtic, with the injured Connor Randall replaced by Callum Johnson, while Josh Sims and Owura Edwards started.

A fairly tame game sprung into life on 20 minutes when Jonah Ayunga crashed a shot off the post. County left-back Ben Purrington had the ball nicked off him by Keanu Baccus, who fed the summer arrival from Morecambe.

Ayunga didn’t have an awful lot of support, so looked up and fired an effort from the corner of the box which struck the far upright.

The visitors hadn’t threatened Saints, but in the early stages of the season Edwards has shown glimpses of his pace and that he can cause trouble.

Just over ten minutes before the interval, he sped past Ryan Strain on the left as County broke from their own half, eventually freeing Dominic Samuel. However, his effort from an angle was blocked for a corner.

The best chance of the half arrived a couple of minutes before the break when Baccus charged forward and smashed a shot from 18 yards which sailed just over the bar. The Aussie should have at least hit the target and tested County goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw.

St Mirren’s opener arrived six minutes after half-time, with Tait putting the strikers to shame.

Baccus drove towards the box but lost possession. The ball eventually fell to Curtis Main before it broke kindly to Tait. There was only one thing on his mind as he shaped his body and curled a stunning right-footed effort into the

top-right corner from 20 yards. Not bad for a left-back.

County were almost level just after the hour mark when Johnson’s cross from the right was met by Edwards, whose header hit the outside of the far post.

Saints looked the more likely to score another goal as the game wore on, with captain Joe Shaughnessy seeing a close-range header saved by Laidlaw.

‘This feels different from the last two defeats as we’d just played Champions League and Europa League teams,’ said County manager Mackay.

‘Our bread and butter is another seven or eight teams in this league. It’s early but we need to make sure we find a way, like a few others, to stay in this division.’

Football

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2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

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