Temple Of Saints - Phew!!

Scottish Premier League - 02/12/2000

Scumdee 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team: Main,Sylla,McCulloch,Dods,Weir,McCluskey,Dasovic,Kane,Paddy,Parker,JR
Subs: Cuthbert,Pope,Forsyth,Frail,Russell

There are times when being a Saints fan almost makes you give up hope that there is anyone else out there that likes us. Times like today when it seemed that a certain totally unbiased official (aye right) was willing to penalise us for any trivial offence but let the Juntas of Dens get away with their assassinations on Gods Chosen Players. But then again you get the sheer unadulterated pleasure of shoving it right up the Scum in the last minute with one of the jammiest goals we'll ever get.

With Blaster suspended Marco made the expected drop back to the left wing-back position, whilst JR made the starting line-up on the right side of the park leaving Dods to move to the middle. Up front Jack Russell was dropped and Lazarus made a return to the side.

The opening stages were fairly even with both teams willing to push forward and as early as the 6th minute we should have taken the lead when Le Mo beat the offside trap on the right. He ran through one-on-one with Riccota the keeper who made an excellent block after the Saints player tried to round him. Saints managed a few corners but with a team that's not scored from a header this season there was little effect. The defence looked fairly solid with Weir and McCluskey crowding out Junkie and his pals although Marco struggled a bit in the left back slot.

Unfortunately it was down to a Main error that gave the Soap-dodgers the lead. A passback to him and he played a short ball to Weir who was put into a tight spot and forced to concede a shy. The ball came back in, a cross was put in from the right and Sara outleapt the defence to send a looping header past the Saints keeper. After that we looked pretty shaky and the amount of headers that Sara was winning didn't help to boost confidence in the team.

But gradually we began to get back into the game despite the tendency for the Lux-lackers to drop at every opportunity. A free-kick on the left was crossed over by Kane. Weir managed to get the header back across goal and Paddy headed the ball into the net only for Dallas to chalk it off.

The ref caused more controversy just after that. With the coagies set to take a free-kick, Junkie lashed out at Weir. The large Saints crowd reacted angrily and when Dallas pulled the hippy aside we awaited the inevitable red. But no, he decided to give him a yellow instead and the Saints fans went mental. DiMarchi followed him into the book just after that for a foul on Paddy as the Saints striker tried to get into the box. He followed this up with a tussle with JR with hands being raised but good ole Dallas just let them off.

Saints had plenty of chances with a Paddy volley bringing out a good save from Riccota and a JR shot firing the players up as well. Le Mo got a bit too fired up though and despite the Scumdee players diving antics at his first foul he went into Dallas' wee black book as well.

Half-time came and the Bin-rakers tried to record their home supports Neanderthal grunts for their CD. But there's not way they'll get anything recorded as the away support launched into the longest medley of anti-Coagy ditties since the days of Vaasa and Monaco. God knows what the folks at ESPN made of it all.

Saints came back out just as fired up for the second 45 (maybe the singing reached them?), and the first few minutes saw a couple of shots blocked and the inevitable wasted corners. The Dens Mafia were more concerned with getting the fouls in though and Kiegan especially came in for a lot of attention - not that Dallas took any action. The striker had a cracking chance on the hour mark as well as he took the ball on the angle on the 6-yd box and sent a neat chip via Spaghettis boot only for Riccota to tip it over the bar.

At the other end Main had to look sharp to save a Wilkie header. With the game moving from end-to-end it was fairly entertaining stuff and JR should have done better when he broke into the box. Unfortunately he mishit his chip although we got a free kick from it when Ravioli handled on the edge of the box. Kane saw his effort blocked and Le Mo could only put the rebound over the bar. Wilkie had another shot which Main save excellently.

St Sandy put on the Pope for JR with Le Mo dropping back to the right wing-back position. As the game entered the last 10 minutes, McCluskey saw his header well saved and then Pope saw Riccota save his free-kick. The Jute-junkies broke up the park but luckily their shot hit the post and Jesus took the rebound.

Dallas decided he'd been fair long enough by now (although the number of dives Bonetti got away with you'd have thought he was a U-boat commander) and McCluskey became the 2nd Saints player to be booked for dissent - something which is happening a bit too often with Saints these days. Then even worse after being bundled off the ball for the umpteenth time, Dallas booked Parker for diving - and you can probably guess the reaction of the Saints fans to that.

But with injury-time well under way, justice was at last seen. A long cross-ball saw Le Mo in the clear on the right - he ran up the park to the byeline and sent a hard cross into the box which ended up in the net courtesy of Wilkie, Riccota and possibly Dasovic (either way it took ages to cross the line and even then the cheats were still palming it away). Cue for us to go crazy and the chorus of "Who let the Tinks out" to start, whilst Le Mo was lucky not to pick up a 2nd yellow for running behind the goals as part of his celebration.

Full-time saw Saints leave the park to plenty of cheers and credit to the players, especially Weir, Jesus and Le Mo for acknowledging what was one of the loudest away supports of the season. MoM goes to Dods - he's looking better and better with each game and his runs as a pseudo-winger are one of the most entertaining things about the side.

As for Them - apart from being a bunch of cheating divers they are at least playing some decent football. Mind you they smell worse than ever these days.

This Match Report is copyright Temple Of Saints - not to be reused without permission. Contact webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk.

Remember to vote on todays ref Hugh Dallas send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk or just select a rating and press the button below ::

Saints Index Fixtures Index Grange Index

Any problems / comments mail webmaster@grange.demon.co.uk