St Mirren 1 Partick Thistle 0
St Mirren avoided making unwanted football history as they dug deep to see off the threat of Partick Thistle and secure top-flight football in Paisley for a ninth successive season.
Defeat would have seen them burdened with the unenviable record of becoming the first Scottish club to win a major trophy and be relegated in the same season but, after an unconvincing 1-1 first leg draw at Firhill, they stepped up in the return when it mattered most and saved their skins.
If clinching the League Cup in December by beating Celtic in the final was the undoubted high of a tumultuous campaign that has pulled their supporters’ emotions this way and that, then this was shaping up to be the nadir after they were dragged into the playoffs as the Premiership’s lowest scorers by some distance.
Relegation into the Championship for the first time since 2018 would have been massively damaging for the club as a whole but, needing to produce something, they had cause to thank one of their goalscoring cup-winning heroes for once again making his mark.
Marcus Fraser doesn’t score many but when the defender does find the target – like in the final and again last night – they tend to be significant ones. His volley midway through the second half proved to be the difference between two very evenly matched teams as Thistle were once again left to ponder what might have been.
Thistle players are dejected after losing the Premiership play-off to St Mirren
Relief rather than elation was the primary emotion in the home stands come the end. The highs achieved in recent years under former manager Stephen Robinson – top six finishes, European football and that League Cup success – were never likely to be sustainable in the longer run but few could have foreseen their fall from grace to have come about so quickly and dramatically.
Robinson revolutionised the club during his four years in Paisley but was also complicit in putting them in this position, making too many poor signings in recent windows and overseeing a wretched run of league results before leaving for Aberdeen.
Retaining Premiership status by the slenderest of margins should serve as a wake-up call. A huge rebuilding job now awaits the St Mirren board who must start by finding a permanent manager to replace interim Craig McLeish and then see what they can salvage from a squad running on fumes over recent months as the injuries stacked up and their form fell off a cliff.
They at least can undertake that mission from the comfort of the top division unlike their vanquished rivals who arrived in Paisley with huge expectation that this was finally going to be their year only to be left once more disappointed despite the backing of their boisterous 1600-strong travelling support.
Few have endured more hardship than the denizens of Maryhill over the past decade who endured the ignominy of sliding into League One for a season and now failing to win promotion through the playoffs for a fifth successive season. They will surely come again next season.
It was a nervy affair all night, the tension almost palpable as the Bank Holiday sunshine beat down and fingernails were chewed to the bone the longer the game remained scoreless.
St Mirren defender Alex Gogic battles with Thistle striker Alex Samuel
Both teams had jiggled their lineups to try to gain an edge. Saints made the big call to drop club captain Mark O’Hara to the bench, bringing Killian Phillps back into midfield and starting Jake Young in attack alongside Mika Mandron. Jayden Richardson was deemed a more natural right wing-back fit than Richard King. Thistle made just one change but it was a significant one, restoring in-demand playmaker Ben Stanway – injured on Thursday – to the line-up in place of Logan Chalmers.
St Mirren had made life tough for themselves in the first leg by making far too many defensive mistakes and they were at it again here. Alex Gogic, so often Mr Reliable, was too easily dispossessed by Tony Watt – and not for the last time in the match either. Watt’s cross found its way to Aidan Fitzpatrick whose deflected shot drifted only narrowly wide. A Robbie Crawford header, following a series of Thistle corners, also went just off target.
The home side were creaking under a collective crisis of confidence although they could have settled those early nerves by forging in front. Scott Tanser’s cross from Jacob Devaney’s short corner was flighted enticingly for Fraser but the defender couldn’t direct his header beyond Josh Clarke in the visiting goal.
Marcus Fraser celebrates after scoring the goal that secured St Mirren’s Premiership spot
It was Thistle, though, who looked far more comfortable and composed against a St Mirren team going through a collective bout of the yips. Ross Sinclair would have been a relieved man to see no Thistle striker following up after the goalkeeper inexplicably guddled Crawford’s shot rather than hold on to what looked a comfortable save. Saints had half-chances through Mandron and Phillips but it was they who were the more relieved of the sides to hear the half-time whistle.
The home side needed to turn up the tempo after the restart and did so, with Young letting fly with a left-foot thump that Clarke did well to escort over his bar. Back came Thistle, however, and Alex Samuel’s equally powerful strike was expertly repelled by Sinclair, with Richardson mopping up the danger.
Then came the breakthrough after 65 minutes. O’Hara was sent on for the tiring Allan Campbell and made an immediate impact, floating in the free kick that was volleyed in by Fraser via the underside of the crossbar. VAR seemed to spend an eternity checking for offside before the goal was allowed to stand. St Mirren had the lead.
Back came Thistle and only a stunning Sinclair save denied Logan Chalmers an equaliser from a thunderous free kick just outside the St Mirren box. The visitors had one more opportunity from a similar range. This time it was Kyle Turner who stepped up deep into injury time but when his effort struck the defensive wall, St Mirren had done enough to get over the line.
