Saints 1 Stirling 1 (with the refs help)
Team ::
Main,McQuillan,Preston,Attila,McCluskey,Griffin,Scott,ONeill,Grant,
Georgio,Jenko
Subs : Whiteford,Farquhar,McAnespie
What was it I said a few weeks ago about it being a long run into the end of the season ? After nabbing a decent result at Dens last week we now go and screw it up at home to a Stirling team we should have finished off in the second half. In addition the performance of ref Hugh (media darling) Dallas was farcical when it came to Stirling barging Main over the line....sorry equalising.
Saints started off well enough with plenty of pressure and a couple of corners in the first 5 mins. With Roddy and Dino back from suspension, it seemed that both Georgio and Scott were starting to settle into more attacking roles. Preston was moved to left-back to replace the injured Davison and pushed forward plenty. The only weakness evident at the start was again the tendency for McQ to drift towards the centre of the pitch - a couple of times Stirling had 2 players attacking down their left which left some big gaps in defence. However, Main appeared to be on top form with a couple of excellent first-half saves to keep Saints in the game. At the other end, ONeill and Attila worked well to create some chances and when Jenko got the ball, some good crosses were put into the box. Stirling settled into the offside trap and this caught Saints out several times though towards the end of the half, Roddy finally beat the trap only to narrow the angle too much with the shot.
As the first-half wore on you could see the Saints players startin to take things a bit too casually with Dino and Scott in midfield both guilty of losing possession too often. However both McCluskey and Danny were again outstanding in central defence - are they the Hegarty and Narey for Saints ??
Second half got off to much the same sort of play with the constant rain slowing the game up a bit. Saints finally got their goal in 55 mins. Georgio was brought down on the edge of the box. Up steps Jenko and the usual postage stamp corner free-kick went home. He may appear to do sod all for most of the game but goals like these are almost worth the wait. For a while after we scored it seemed that we would go on to comfortably win the match. Farquhar came on to replace the tiring ONeill (maybe now he can get a rest to build his fitness up), although he seemed to struggle in the wide right role he was asked to play. Jenko, Scott and Preston were combining well on the right with Jenko playing with an extra confidence. A couple of good moves came from them with some good balls played across an open Stirling goal.
It wasnt all one-sided though and Stirling fought back into the game and after forcing 3 corners in a row scored from a Deas header after the Saints defence failed to clear their lines. The fact that Main appeared to have been bundled over the line by one of the Stirling players seemed to be ok in Dallas' rule-book with Main picking up a booking for taking his frustration out on the ball. After that Saints pressed for the winner with McAnespie brought on for the crap Georgio (he needs to extract the finger now !!!!!) coming close with a header over the bar. Stirling had several good chances as well with a couple of shots into the side-netting and a volley off the bar.
Despite the boos at the end, we should probably be grateful for the point given that a draw was a fair result. Stirling are playing good football and deserve to stay up. As for Saints, we sorely need a striker up front - Roddy and Georgio are well off form. On the bright side however, Weir will struggle to regain his place with McCluskey on good form and Alan Main is playing out of his skin just now.
So 9 points to go and 6 games left !!!!!!