Temple Of Saints - Saints Go 2nd
League Division One Tues 24th Sept 96.
Saints 1 Airdrie 1
Team :: Main,McQuillan,Preston,Tosh,Whiteford,Griffin,Scott,O'Neil,Grant,
Georgio,Jenko
Subs :: McAnespie,Donaldson,King
So an improvement from the Clydebank game means we get a point, remain
unbeaten in the league at home for a year and go second in the league, but
it was a pretty shite performance really. Even with the excuses that we were
missing several regular players (ie Weir, Attila, Davison, McCluskey) this
was probably one of our worst performances of the season.
Things got off to the usual shit start v Airdrie when after a few Saints
attacks (and Jenko corners), Airdries first attack resulted in ex-Arab
Paddy Connolly knocking home a rebound from 6 yards after about 5 mins. After
this the first half went downhill - the only save Martin having to make
coming from a Jenko free-kick. To be honest I was silently grateful to be
going in at half-time only 1-0 down. Saints tried desperately to play the
offside trap but perhaps due to the lack of teamwork and experience, this
failed to come off several times. Add in McQuillans tendency to come too
far forward to cover his position and it left Airdries Wilson plenty of
room to attack.
Airdrie were up to their usual tricks with the quota of dives and assaults
to keep ref Dallas busy. The only high spot for Saints was a booking for
Davies for a tackle from behind on O'Neil.
Second half started in much the same way with Connolly missing a sitter
at the start. However, Saints gradually came back into the game (tho we didnt
look like scoring). 65 mins gone and a beautiful thru ball from Georgio
got Jenko who beat the oncoming Martin for the equaliser.
After that Saints dominated without really threatening. Only Tosh, Jenko
and Fizzy seemed to pose any danger. Roddy was obviously tired (1 game a
week seems his limit) and OBoyle was well-marked. Apart from the usual
stonewall penalty being turned down in the last minute and a booking for
Roddy for mouthing off there werent really any more incidents.
Still we are second in the league and hopefully Weir will be back to
boost the defence on Sat. Whiteford looks promising but lacks experience.
MoM was Tosh - probably the most improved player since last season.