Saints 4 Montrose 2
Team :: Main,McQuillan,Preston,Attila,Weir,Griffin,Scott,O'Neil,Grant,
Georgio,Jenko
Subs :: Whiteford,Tosh,Fyhr
Another pretty crap performance but at least we've made a cup final. And
Saints have finally signed a new striker in Peter Fyhr, a 6'5" Swede
who came off the bench tonight - looks not too bad. All we need to do now
is get the rest of the team playing like a team instead of 11 so-so
players.
The match itself wasnt too bad. Saints started well and forced 2 corners
early on but it was Main who was forced to make a good save. As the first
half went on, Saints domination of the Montrose half began to look shaky
and Montrose managed a few good breaks upfield. Scott and ONeil managed to
pick up bookings for needless retaliation and dissent.
Then Roddy started his magic in the 30th minute with a perfect header
from a Jenko cross. Unfortunately Saints then decided to sit back and let
Montrose come back into the game resulting in the usual defensive cock-up
(Preston this time) which allowed Montrose to snatch a well-worked
equaliser just before half-time.
2nd half started well for Saints with plenty of possession but without
looking like retaking the lead. Then with 15 mins played, a Phizzy shot
hit the post and landed at Roddys feet for him to slice home the rebound.
10 mins later and a soft penalty allowed Roddy to claim his hat-trick.
This was followed by a Georgio deflected shot 5 minutes later to make it
4-1.
It looked at this point like Saints were going to romp home in style but
as against E Fife we eased up and allowed Montrose to snatch one back thru
a penalty against Weir for handball and to put some pressure on Saints in
the closing stages.
Attila and Roddy were replaced by Tosh and Vere with 10 mins to go. The
big Swede (henceforth to be known as Olaf) looks fairly good in the air
and worked a few moves well with Jenko. Tosh looked his usual keen self -
IMHO hes a more dedicated player than Scott.
So plenty of cheers at the final whistle (crowd was 2675) and it was good
to see Attila do his party-piece with a happy Saints support. MoM went to
McQ, but I reckon Danny looked a better player tonight.