Kilmarnock come from behind to sink St Mirren

Posted Sunday, October 21, 2018 by PA

Kilmarnock came from behind to win for the fourth successive match – but controversy surrounded their 2-1 victory against St Mirren in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

The award of Aaron Tshibola’s second-half winner is likely to rankle with the Saints management team as they slipped to their fourth successive defeat.

Adam Hammill’s free-kick had the Paisley side ahead in the early stages but second-half strikes from Alan Power and Tshibola gave the Ayrshire side a fifth win in six games as they kept the pressure up on the league’s pace-setters.

The Buddies had made a positive start when Hammill’s whipped free-kick put them in front. The effort, from an acute angle, was probably intended as a cross but snuck in at the far post for the winger’s first goal on his home debut.

The goal was also the Buddies’ first at the Simple Digital Arena since the opening day of the season when Danny Mullen struck twice against Dundee.

Kirk Broadfoot was then booked for a foul on the exciting Simeon Jackson after the striker had turned him on the edge of the area. Referee Willie Collum adjudged the foul only to be worthy of a yellow card.

The resulting free-kick from Hammill smashed off Stephen O’Donnell’s head and play was stopped as a result. The visitors then got play under way with a drop-ball – much to the frustration of Oran Kearney.

The St Mirren manager’s frustration would have turned to anger had Killie frontman Eamonn Brophy curled his effort into the back of the net and not just wide of the target.

Killie were much improved in the second half and Alan Power had their first effort after the restart easily saved by Craig Samson.

The Saints goalkeeper was then forced into a much less routine save down to his left after a surging run and strike from Stuart Findlay.

From the resulting corner, Greg Stewart found Power and the midfielder thumped in an unstoppable strike high into the top left hand corner to level the scores.

The visitors completed the turnaround midway through the second period when Tshibola’s goalbound header was adjudged to have crossed the line by linesman Dougie Ross.

The protests from the Buddies players suggested that they had seen the incident differently – although first viewing did seem to show that the officials had got the decision right.

The hosts’ anger was intensified minutes later when Jackson’s goal was ruled off for an offside. The new signing reacted quickly to MacDonald’s parried save – but was ruled to have wandered into an illegal position.