Temple Of Saints - Unlucky

Scottish Premier League - 09/09/2000

Sheep 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team: Main,Sylla,Blaster,Weir,Kernaghan,Dasovic,McCulloch,Kane,Jones, Parker,Hartley
Subs: Robertson,Pope,Russell,Dods,Tommy

Before reading any further believe me I am trying to remain objective about the referees performance and the attitude of some of the Saints players. But it's hard not to feel that if there had been a bit more fight in the side in the first half then we would have had the game well wrapped up before going down to 10 men (more later). As it is we probably deserved a win against a young but very poor Dons side. Still there were some moments to brighten up the day.

St. Sandy made two changes to the side from Tuesday. Pope and Tommy dropped to the bench to make way for Dasovic and Nosey whilst Marc McCulloch deservedly kept his slot although he was shifted out to wide left. It meant we went for a more traditional 4-4-2 with JR the only recognised winger. The man in the middle was Tom Brown - as in Tom "Booked 4 in 11 minutes at Love St" Brown. Needless to say we didn't take that as a warning.

Saints started lively enough and as early as the 2nd minute Parker had the ball in the net although he was ruled offside. With the usual Pittodrie swirling gales any attempts to play the ball in the air usually meant that the ball missed it's target. So guess what both sides tried to do? Yup and the game settled down to a pattern of miskicks etc. with a Blaster free kick one of the best examples as the ball went past an unready Dasovic and straight to a home defender.

Still Mr Brown likes to be noticed and Kanes first foul on Winters meant his name went in the book after only 8 minutes as Brown chased his own record. 10 minutes later and Main managed to annoy the home fans by daring to come and punch the ball clear - well he felled Blaster and one of their players in the process but all's fair eh? Saints were it has to be said pretty poor at this time. Jones was up front on his own but the tall Sheep defence meant that he wasn't winning too many balls and when he did, there was no support. MoMo and JR on the right were shadows of their previous performances with miskicks and stray passes whilst McCulloch on the left was too defensive to provide much support to Kiegan. At least Weir and Kernaghan looked solid enough but once or twice they were caught for pace.

With little goalmouth action it was the ref that drew most of the attention. A nasty foul by Paul "Potential" Bernard on Nick went unpunished only for Jones to win a 50-50 ball a minute later and get a yellow card. Even worse was to come though with Derek Whyte continually shoving the Saints player off the ball in the aerial challenges but despite Saints winning a free-kick no action was taken against the home side.

Saints had a few corners but despite some good crosses from JR we had little to offer in the box. Jones had a close shot blocked but too often we settled for the high ball to little or no effect. And just to keep the small away support annoyed Dasovic picked up a booking just before half-time.

2nd half saw no changes by St. Sandy and Saints seemed to be willing to settle for the same tactics. That was thrown into disarray within 5 minutes though as Weir was red-carded for pulling Winters down as the player broke down the left and cut in towards goal. I have to say that despite Winters making the most of it, Weir deserved to go. It was a totally stupid action by the player.

St. Sandy put on Dods and took off JR as we went to a 4-3-2 formation with both strikers dropping back more. Still we managed some attacks and within a couple of minutes Kiegan was felled on the edge of the box as he was through on goal. Of course this being Tom Brown only the yellow card was produced for the home defender. This only seemed to fire Saints up more and we began to put more pressure on a shaky Dons defence with the ball on the ground more. MoMo was running the entire right wing and taking corners to boot. His first one on the hour mark saw Dods head the ball at the back post only for Esson to save well.

But more was to come from the cult hero and in 65 minutes he picked up a return ball from Kane on the right. Starting a casual run towards the box he decided to go for broke and after dodging 2 or 3 tackles let lose with a rocket from 20 yards out which flew past Esson into the net and sent us wild. Cue for the Saints fans to start a chorus of "WE ONLY NEED 10 MEN". Saints were on top now and even a booking for Kiegan for a late challenge didn't stop the attacks. Nick broke up the park on a good solo run but hesitated too long before passing ineffectively when he probably could have gone on for a shot.

Aberdeen counter-attacked and Main had to look sharp to make a good save, then Jones had a shot at the other end. We looked slow in defence and with MoMo and Dods struggling to keep Dow in check we conceded some corners. Unfortunately it was another attack from the left that cost us the equaliser when Main was slow to come to pick up the ball in his 6-yd box only to see Winters nick in and from a narrow angle put the ball in the net. The only surprise was that he didn't want to dive in the box as well.

Aberdeen were on the attack now and a poorly cleared corner saw BedandBawd have a dip from the edge of the box which Main did well to tip over the bar.

St. Sandy put on Russell for Parker with 10 minutes to go and we went to a 4-4-1 formation with Russell on the right wing. There was still plenty of action. Saints defended for most of it with MoMo picking up his traditional yellow for a nothing challenge with 5 minutes left. Then in the dying seconds, Russell sent a wonderful through ball to Jones who beat the offside trap and ran to the edge of the box only to see his weak shot blocked by Esson.

MoM for me was Kernaghan who looked solid in defence and back to his old screaming Cartman self. Unfortunately the rest of the team looked less than match sharp lacking any real ability to turn the game around. We still deserved the win though on the chances made and if we'd still had 11 players on the park who knows.

As for the sheep - Saints managed 4 balls onto the roof of the stand in the first half. Looks like the price of toast at Pittodrie will be going up again !!! Still it's nice to see the only club in Scotland who provide *seats* for the ballboys. But they're still as bad as last year.

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