Temple Of Saints - Apathy Rules

Scottish Premier League - 28/04/2001

Saints Sod All Sheep 3 League Table Here

Team: Main,Dods,Some Lardboy Masquerading as Bollan,Dasovic,Weir, McCluskey, Marco,Tommy,Kiegan,JR,MoMo
Subs: Cuthbert,Nathan,Pope,Ferry,Fotheringham

Aw shit. Never mind some of the worst refereeing decisions since Mr and Mrs Dallas went and had wee Shuggy, or that the Sheep seem intent on becoming the new Airdrie with cynical fouls and hacks.

Nope what the crap that passed for entertainment today shows is that the future is definitely with the kids. I've backed Saints through a lot but if that overweight, unfit ex-Hun Bollan is in the Saints line-up again this season I'm I'll end up booing a Saints player onto the park. The arse isn't fit to lace Forsyth's boots. And if Lowndes thinks that hanging around not tackling or attempting to play against any future employers means he'll get his rumoured 5 grand a week demands met by Saints then he's in for a very rude awakening.

Injuries meant Troy and Flash missed out today so Forrest Gump took over at right back and a tub of lard appeared on the left. Elsewhere it was unchanged from last week although injuries meant the introduction of Ferry, Pope and new boy Martin Fotheringham on the bench.

Early on we were fairly attack-minded as well. In fact after the first panic-induced moment from a Bollan passback in the first minute (suffice to say he made an unfit Harry Curran look like lightning), we nearly took the lead. Some good build-up on the left saw Kiegan get the break of the ball. Unfortunately his pass to JR in the box saw the winger take a touch to many, the ball was cleared only to fall to Bollan whose long-range shot went over the bar.

Chances were few and far between though. JR almost beat Esson to a short pass back and on the quarter hour mark, Kiegan beat the Sheep defence and got through but his pass to MoMo on the right was too weak. The Dons broke up the park and after Bollan showed just how unfit he was by being outpaced for the umpteenth time, it was left to Main to make a decent save. Saints were pretty much dominating the play though and Kiegan had a couple of good runs. Tommy and JR were playing well on the wings and as usual Le Mo was the creative genius. Unfortunately the Sheep knew that as well and closed him down. Not that we were being helped by McCurry in the middle but more on that later.

The first goal was just a shambles. An Aberdeen clearance on 24 minutes found Mackie unmarked in the middle of the park, He sprinted through on goal with Bollan trying to catch up with him. A last-ditch tackle by LardBoy saw the ball spin off and despite Main's attempts it beat him and literally trundled into the net. The body language in the Saints players said it all.

A minute later things began to deteriorate further. After a nasty challenge on him by Darren Young Le Mo got into a shoving match which saw Young collapse, McCurry book Mo and take no action against the Aberdeen player. Even worse within a minute he'd viciously chopped down JR and didn't even merit a warning. The game was poor now with the ref's continual whistling spoiling the play. We nearly equalised when Kiegan sent a neat through ball for Le Mo to run onto. Esson beat him to it but dropped the ball and as Le Mo lying down, stretched out to try and poke the ball over the line an Aberdeen defender cleared it - but of course McCurry had blown for a foul by then - something which he managed to repeat every time Esson dropped the ball all afternoon.

Just before half-time it got much, much worse. A pass from the Sheep defence saw Mackie and Stavrum breaking forward. Stavrum blatantly bundles McCluskey to the ground, the ref waves play on and Mackie puts the ball past Main. I've seen some poor decisions and that has to be one of the worst ever. Obviously the Saints players agreed and Weir and Main were both involved with arguments with the officials at the break.

The second-half was almost totally forgettable as Aberdeen were more than happy to sit back and Saints just couldn't piece together any decent attacks with Kiegan looking tired after his midweek travels and MoMo being careful thanks to his yellow. JR was replaced by Nathan 10 minutes after the restart and he stormed off into the tunnel. Five minutes later Pope came on for MoMo but the game was just dire with the referee not letting it flow and too many loose balls.

We had a decent penalty claim on the 70 minute mark when Tommy (who ran his arse off all day) beat 3 defenders and got into the box - but true to form the ref ignored it. Mind you the way we're playing we'd have missed.

Within a couple of minutes it was 3-0. After Stavrum sclaffed the ball over the bar from 10 yards out following a sprint with Lardboy (guess who won?), a follow-up attack saw a classic mix-up between Weir and McCluskey which let Stavrum in to put the ball into the net from 8 yards out.

Martin Fotheringham came on for Marco with 10 minutes to go but despite some nice Tommy / Kiegan moves the score never changed.

MoM for me goes to Tommy. Both he and Marco had to do a lot of covering for Bollan and Tommy was IMHO the more effective of the wingers. Kiegan looks like he needs a rest. To be honest we didn't deserve to lose 3-0. That doesn't escape the fact that a lot of the players on the park were well below their best today. Lowndes, Weir, Lardboy all need to improve. Dasovic was OK but tired visibly and Marco was off the pace.

Sandy Clark said before Xmas that he didn't want to sell Bollan to the Jambos then in case that cost us points. God knows how many we've lost since thanks to his presence in the side.

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