SAINTS TOO STRONG FOR SHIRE

Shire's first friendly match of the pre-season ended in a 3-1 defeat against a very strong St. Johnstone team at Firs Park.

The First Division side started the match with a host of well-known faces including former Shire favourite Martin Hardie, Kevin James, Paul Sheerin, Peter McDonald, Steven Milne, Steven Anderson, David Weatherston and new signing from Rotherham, Derek Holmes.

The Shire starting line up was : John Hillcoat, Craig Donaldson, Dean Richardson, Stephen Oates, Michael Bolochoweckyj, David King, Sean Anderson, David Nicholls, Colin Cramb, David Dunn, Derek Ure.

Not surprisingly, Shire were up against it from the start but held out until midway through the half when the visitors took the lead with a back post header from a well-delived free-kick.

The first 20 minutes of the second half saw two more goals from the Perth team, one from the penalty spot.

Boss Jim McInally gave second half run outs to Marc McKenzie, Andy Rodgers, Gary Kelly, Craig Tully, Greig Mitchell and a trialist striker.

It was the replacement forward who won an 82nd minute penalty which Kelly converted for the team's consolation.

"It was a good work out for us," said the Shire coach afterwards. "They had a number of quality players out there and I  thought we stuck to our task quite well.

"The goals, from set pieces and a penalty were a disappointment but when we did get the ball I  thought we put together some decent moves."