Saints 2 Gorgie Gits 2 League Table Here
Team:
Main,Sylla,Blaster,Weir,Kernaghan,Dasovic,Tommy,Parker,Jones, Pope,Kane
Subs: Cuthbert,Russell,Dods,Paddy,McCulloch
A nice bright Sunday night and a decent crowd of Saints fans enjoying the sunshine and the Sky TV coverage settle down to watch St. Sandy's sexy Revolution continue. Well almost. It did for 82 minutes before the old tactics of sit back and defend meant we blew it and in the end hung on for a point. Despite the good performance against East Fife midweek, the manager stuck by the Ibrox team and subs.
Early stages were pretty scrappy as the Gorgie Gits closed Saints down at every opportunity meaning chances for any sort of creative midfield play were limited. In defence we looked slow on the left with Blaster having a poor game and not helped by Tommy being Mr Anonymous for large stages. Midfield had Kane giving the ball away and Pope unwilling to push forward. Up front we had some hope though. Jonesy was winning a lot of balls in the air and Nosey and Sylla on the right were having a field day.
The game was fairly even although the first real chance fell to Saints when Sylla slipped a beautiful through ball to Jonesy who saw his shot go over. Main made a couple of good saves after Saints gave away possession in midfield by we were by far the more attractive team in the build-up. But we lacked any real punch as too often Goalden Graeme was having to do the work on his own in the box. Half-way through the half, Parker had a good shot go wide. Again it was Sylla on the build-up and his through ball to Jonesy in the box saw the big forward hold off 4 Gorgie Gits (and get fouled several times although Baldy Rowbotham failed to notice) before slipping the ball wide to Kiegan who shot over.
By now we were piling on the pressure and 10 minutes later a series of corners saw us take the lead. With Pressley off the park receiving treatment Saints took advantage and a Pope kick floated into the box for Kiegan to put over the line. 1-0 and the "massive"(!) away support shuts up.
The next 10 minutes saw Saints up the entertainment with Parker and Sylla taking the total piss out of Fulton and the Jambos defence with some wonderful dribbling and ball skills. Suffice to say that Sylla has to be one of the most naturally gifted players at the club just now. Of course it wasn't all one-way and Main pulled off a wonder save from a Cameron header on the stroke of half-time.
Second-half continued in much the same vein with Kane giving the ball away almost from the restart and Saints still looking disjointed. Still we had flashes of skill including Mr Dive-Dive Jackson looking none too enamoured as Sylla took the piss out of him dribbling the ball out of defence and up the right wing.
With Mumblin' Jim getting more and more desperate he put on a couple of subs and removed Petric from the centre of defence which cost them the 2nd goal. Before that though we had Sylla breaking up the right, sending a perfect ball into the box only to see Jones' diving header save by Niemi and then Tommy put the rebound over from 6 yards.
20 minutes to go though and it looked like we were home and dry. A long ball from Bollan found Tommy who beat Pressley to the bounce and outran the ugly git before sending a low cross into the box for Jones to score. So 2-0 up with twenty minutes to go, you'd think we'd pile on the pressure. But not Saints - instead we decided to defend in depth and with the Gorgie Gits having more attackers on the park it meant we were under a lot of pressure.
St. Sandy removed Father Dougal and put Dods on but with 8 minutes to go, O'Neil for the Gits pulled one back after some woeful defending led to a goalmouth scramble and the Jambo handballing the ball over the line. Then in the last minute it all went wrong as another piece of very soft defending saw Robert BouncedCheck make it 2-2. By this time Connolly had come on for Kiegan but there was to be no miraculous comeback.
Bookings for Blaster, Goalden and Cap'n Jim but for some reason the Jambos were allowed to kick the shit out of my MoM Sylla without punishment. On the plus side Sylla, Parker and Jones all put in a good performance but there were too many players on the park that were mere passengers. And as for the tactics, St. Sandy must realise that a sole centre-forward is no use at home.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Dundee | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| Rangers | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
| Celtic | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Hibs | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Aberdeen | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Kilmarnock | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Hearts | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Saints | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Dunfermline | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| St. Mirren | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Motherwell | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Dundee United | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
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