Temple Of Saints - Improvements

Scottish Premier League - 14/03/2001

Saints 1 TFOE 2 League Table Here

Team: Main,McCluskey,Forsyth,Weir,Kernaghan,Dasovic,Crozier,Kane, Kiegan,Sylla,Frail
Subs: Cuthbert,Tommy,JR,O'Neill,McClune

At least tonight's game went ahead, and whilst it was unlikely to get any worse than recent weeks, a makeshift Saints side (Pope failed a fitness test just before kick-off) including 2 teenagers making their starting debuts proved that there is still plenty of ability at the club and possibly deserved to take a point against a Sellik side that is cruising to the title now.

Several changes in the side with St. Sandy favouring a 3-5-2 line-up with Weir, Father Dougal and McCluskey as backs and Frail and Ross Forsyth on the right and left. Crozier, Dasovic and Kane made up the rest of the midfield whilst Le Mo joined Kiegan (finally called up to the Scotland U-21 squad today) up front.

As early as the first minute, Ross Forsyth hit a lovely long ball up the left wing for Kiegan to run through on only for his lob to be headed clear by Rab the Scab. We looked sharp enough with the two debut boys on the left giving Diddy Agatha and Whinger Lambert a rough time. Crozier is still a bit lightweight but more than makes up for this with his pace up the left wing and both players showed a willingness to chase the ball and hassle the opposition which has been missing in recent weeks. Actually the fight was there across the whole side with the 3 centre backs and midfield putting in a good game although despite Le Mo playing up front, we lacked the punch that another striker would bring. It didn't stop Le Mo making a decent run into the box after 13 minutes only for his cutback to be missed by Kiegan.

For the bigots StaleLoaf Petrov (the TFOE equivalent of Andrei the Bread-Queuer with his diving and whingeing) missed a sitter as TFOE tried to hit us on the break with Weir caught out for pace a couple of times by Henprick. Unfortunately with half-an-hour gone, the scum took the lead. Another dull corner on the right somehow found Johnson totally unmarked in the 6-yard box and he easily headed past Main.

Saints struggled for a bit to get back into the game as TFOE upped the pace. Our midfield was defending too deep and Kiegan was being shall we say closely marked by Vulgarmen and Ramon the Transvestite. Of course that just meant that the first booking would be a Saints player and whilst Nick did deserve a yellow, Gorilla Thomson and Bleachheid Lennon both constantly escaped any form of warning or punishment for their dissent as Underhill was running scared.

Still justice was done 3 minutes before the break. Some wonderful skill by Le Mo on the left wing saw him take the total piss out of Bleachheid, Staleloaf and Diddy at the corner before St Lennon (as the Wegie Media seem to have canonised him) hacked Sylla - no booking of course. Up steps Kano to send a cross into the box and McCluskey outjumps the defence to send a header past a stationary Rab the Scab. We nearly took the lead as well - Le Mo slipped a lovely backheel to Nick who squared to Crozier only for the shot to go wide.

Second-half started well for Saints. Frail was unlucky to be beaten to a back post header by Ramon the FrockWearer. Then Kane's corner was cut back to Crozier. His shot was blocked before Father Dougal (playing out of his skin) hit a sweet turn and volley which the Scab did well to catch. On the wings Le Mo was putting in a good shift but too often his crosses found nobody pushing forward through the middle.

TFOE had the ball in the net a couple of times but both were ruled out for offside which led to the usual outbursts and dissent from Bleachheid and the Gorilla and the usual failure by Underhill to take any action. On the hour mark they managed a fair goal though with a free kick on the right being glanced in by Henprick. The wee de-dreadlocked shite nearly made it 3-1 just after but Main did well to tip his chip wide although the keeper has to take some of the blame for being so far off his line in the first place.

Saints had a long-range effort from Le Mo go wide before St. Sandy made some attacking substitutions. Tommy came on for Crozier with the youngster getting deservedly applauded off the park and JR replaced Frail. Father Dougal picked up a yellow for a foul on Staleloaf although the Vulgarmen fouls on Kiegan and JR still went unpunished. We kept on pressing but didn't have any luck in front of goal and the only other incident of note was the stretchering off of Staleloaf with what looked like a broken leg after a 50-50 collision with Weir. Expect the Saints captain to be slaughtered by the Wegie Media in the morning.

MoM for me was easy with Ross Forsyth looking a much better bet for the left-back slot than Bollan. Hopefully both he and Crozier will get a decent run in the team. We missed a striker tonight with Kiegan having to do too much on his own but the defence looked a million times more solid against a much tougher strike force. As for Tommy and Hartley - both were pretty poor when they came on but with Sylla suspended at least one of them is likely to play at the weekend.

So no win yet but at least there is a bit more to be optimistic about..


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LEAGUE TABLE

Team P W D L F A Points
Celtic 30 25 4 1 77 23 79
Rangers 29 20 3 6 56 27 63
Hibs 29 17 9 3 51 20 60
Kilmarnock 30 13 6 11 34 39 45
Hearts 30 12 6 12 48 43 42
Dunfermline 30 10 7 13 28 44 37
Dundee 29 10 6 13 42 37 36
Motherwell 30 10 6 14 35 43 36
Aberdeen 28 7 10 11 29 40 31
Saints 29 7 10 12 30 43 31
Dundee United 29 4 6 19 25 52 18
St. Mirren 30 4 3 23 19 62 15

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