St Johnstone completed an ignominious Viaplay Cup hat-trick – making it a full set of lower league opposition defeats.
League One Stirling Albion followed the lead of fourth tier Stenhousemuir and Championship outfit Ayr United in beating Steven MacLean’s men.
This performance – and result – was undoubtedly the worst of the lot.
At no stage of the football year and in no circumstances should St Johnstone be losing 4-0 to Stirling.
Even though there was nothing on the line for Saints in terms of progressing to the next round of the League Cup, for them to defend this badly, this close to the start of the Premiership was alarming.
Geoff Brown celebrated his 80th birthday on the day of the match and will have witnessed plenty of calamitous afternoons and evenings in his time following and owning the Perth club.
Horror show at the back
But this will rank among the most woeful rearguard displays.
Every one of the goals conceded made you wince.
The first was a free header for Greig Spence on 11 minutes when he found space between Liam Gordon and Liam Parker to put away a cross from the right.
Young Parker, making his full debut, turned over possession before Lewis Milne escaped from James Brown to make it 2-0 at half-time.
By 54 minutes, Saints were an astonishing four goals down.
3-0 Stirling. This is calamitous stuff. Header from a corner.
— Eric Nicolson (@C_ENicolson) July 29, 2023
Paul McLean headed home an in-swinging Jack Leitch corner and then a Leitch free-kick appeared to miss everybody and beat Ross Sinclair from over 30 yards out.
The defensive shortcomings will rightly be the focus of supporter anger in the wake of this game but there wasn’t much in the way of attacking quality either.
The closest Saints came to scoring was when Max Kucheriavyi had a shot saved at 4-0 and Stevie May failed to put away the rebound.
St Johnstone – Sinclair, Brown (McGowan), Gordon, Parker (Considine), Gallacher, Phillips (McCrystal), Kucheriavyi, Ballantyne, Ferguson (Bright), May (Mylchreest), Jephcott. Subs not used – Mitov, Ellison, Klimionek, McMillan.
