Temple Of Saints - "18 in a row against the unwashed"
Scottish League Division One - 18/12/96
Airdrie 0 Saints 1
Team :: Main,McQuillan,Davison,Attila,Weir,Whiteford,Scott,Tosh,Grant,
Dasovic,Jenkinson
Subs :: Preston,O'Neill,McClusky
So the run is now 8 games won in a row with no goals conceded. Having said
that tonights probably the closest we've come to losing a goal - it was only
thanks to crap finishing from Airdrie that Mains record stayed intact.
Conditions were pretty dreadful for most of the game with as expected a
swirling wind playing havoc with both teams. With the wind behind them for
the first half Saints struggled to make an impression tho Phizzy managed to
miss a couple of easy headers. Roddy looked pretty lonesome up front for most
of the time with Tosh and Jenko seemingly undecided as to who should be up
these supporting him. The defence looked solid enough but there was nothing
constructive coming out in the way of passes. Midfield was dreadful with Dino
playing like he was the jetlagged one and although Dasovic looked good he
suffered the usual Airdrie appreciation of his talents - ie kicked all over
the park. And with Kenny Clark as the man in the middle doing his usual
excellent job of ignoring any foul on a Saintee yet falling for the Davies
diving tricks it looked like a long second-half.
Still for once it seemed like God was on our side. A free kick 25 yards
out 10 mins into the second-half was tapped by Attila into Jenkos path for
him to send a low shot to Martins left - a goal almost as good as the one
against the Pars last season.
This seemed to fire both sides up and we had a good open finish to the
game with Airdrie missing a couple of open goals and Phizzy and Roddy forcing
Martin into good saves at the other end. ONeil came on for the crap Tosh and
Preston replaced the tiring Jenko towards the end but the score remained the
same.
Unfortunately just as we all thought it would be a good win for the boys
Attila managed to ruin it all by going in late on a tackle in front of the
home dugout in injury time. Having been booked already for a similar incident
Clark sent him packing. Which now means he'll miss the Falkirk game on
Boxing Day and leave Luggy with a real headache in midfield.
Still mustn't grumble - we're now 11 points clear of Falkirk and the Scum
and 14 clear of Airdrie and St Mirren. Nice way to mark the half-way point in
the season.