IT WAS one of the easiest goals he will ever score, yet his relief was palpable. Mobbed by jubilant team-mates, Dennis Wyness was suddenly carrying a new weight on his shoulders, but his biggest burden had finally been shed.
After over 13 long months without bulging the net, the ex-Hearts striker could finally savour the sweet taste of a goal on Saturday night, a priceless winning one at that to take his side off the foot of the SPL table.
October 27, 2007 was the l
ast time the 31-year-old had scored with former team Inverness; a date frustratingly etched on his conscious, nagging away at him with every passing day. Even his kids were reminding him when he trooped in after each fruitless 90 minutes, his initial drought turning into a full-scale famine.
The harsh statistics, though, can finally be consigned to history. Wyness is off the mark in a St Mirren shirt, helping Gus MacPherson's men end a worrying seven-game winless run.
Coupled with Hamilton's hammering at Ibrox, it was an enjoyable weekend for those down Paisley way.
"I'm delighted for Dennis, absolutely delighted," said MacPherson. "He has been playing well, his link-up play has been superb, his work-rate second to none. He deserves it.
"We've been saying for sometime that we've been playing well and creating opportunities, so to do it again away from home against a good team, we're delighted.
"Nobody likes being bottom, especially when you felt you had been doing a lot of good things."
Wyness' partner for the day, Jim Hamilton, was equally effusive in praise. He added: "It's been a long time coming for Dennis. He's been getting a lot of stick and the boys have been giving him a wee bit as well. But we know what he can do, he brings a lot into the game for us. I'm delighted for him to get off the mark."
Yet Wyness' close-range winner, coming 17 minutes from the end after fine build-up work from Andy Dorman on the left, only told part of the story of an often explosive afternoon.
There seemed little suggestion of what was to follow when the injury-hit visitors deservedly led at the break through Hamilton's 41st-minute tap-in. The evergreen forward, only starting for hamstring victim Craig Dargo, easily slotted home after recalled goalkeeper Robert Olejnik could only parry an angled drive from ex-Bairn Jack Ross.
John Hughes had run out of patience with on-loan Scott Flinders in the nets after recent errors, but his Austrian replacement failed to solve a pressing problem with a nervy display, especially under the high ball.
Still, Falkirk's bright start to the second period hinted at a swift comeback, until referee Dougie McDonald controversially took centre stage.
Jackie McNamara's challenge on Hamilton at the far touchline was deemed a straight red card offence, leaving the hosts a man short for the closing 35 minutes. It was certainly a debatable decision, but McDonald was far closer to the incident than either dug-out.
Falkirk assistant Brian Rice, standing in for a perhaps irate Hughes post-match, said: "I asked the referee and he said it was a poor tackle and he had no option but to send him off. "I haven't seen it on the TV yet, I was quite far away from it. Jackie doesn't think it was a red card but the referee obviously did."
Asked about the incident, Hamilton added to the intrigue: "No comment. The referee sent him off. You can see it on the TV."
Falkirk, to their credit, rallied and Steve Lovell levelled shortly after the hour despite shades of offside from Burton O'Brien's free-kick.
But despite a frenzied, old-fashioned scramble, when Michael Higdon struck the post and Lovell was denied on the line, they slipped to just a second defeat in nine games thanks to Wyness. Rice said: "We didn't start for maybe 30-35 minutes and let ourselves down badly. But I'm not going to deflect from St Mirren. They were the better team."
The full article contains 700 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
