Saints 1 Killie 1 League Table Here
Team:
Main,Sylla,Blaster,Weir,Dods,Dasovic,Tommy,Russell,Jones, O'Neill,Hartley
Subs: Robertson,Parker,Pope,Malcolm,McCulloch
We should have expected it really. After some sexy football and well-deserved praise for their style the wheels came off the Saints bandwagon big-time. A draw was probably a fair result at the end of the day but disappointing for the home fans after recent performances, with far too many of the Saints side showing little or no appetite for attacking football and a complete lack of discipline.
Nosey dropped to the bench with Jack Russell added to the midfield. Stuart Malcolm got a place on the bench after his goal for the U-21s this week, whilst thigh strain victim Cap'n Jim was passed fit.
Saints started with their usual flair and as early as the first minute had a chance to score when JR was sent down the right wing. He managed to get past the Killie defence and into the box only to see Marshall save his shot. The opening stages saw plenty of off-side decisions and some wonderful overacting from the Killie movie-star McCoist showing all his favourite dives - not that ref Willie Young was going to take any action.
With 10 minutes gone a free kick on the edge of the box saw something totally unpredictable happen.....NOT, as Blaster stepped up took a shot and saw it saved. But 5 minutes later the game came to life. A loose ball in midfield found it's way out to Tommy on the left who cut in and sent a blistering drive goalwards from fully 40-yards out. Cue for massed groans amongst the home fans until we suddenly realised how wrong-footed Marshall was, as the ball went past his left and into the net.
Wonderful. 1-0 up and ready to go for the kill. Except that with an all too familiar look to it, Saints went to sleep from the restart, Killie got the ball out to Andy McLaren on the right and he sent a looping volley over Mains head from 20 yds out with Main caught off his line. It was a good goal but yet again it's possibly reflective of a lack of discipline in the Saints side that we can get caught out so frequently. We were lucky not to go behind a minute later when Main made a good fingertip save as the Saints defence crumbled.
Killie had the upper hand now and began to take control of the midfield with Dasovic and the poor O'Neill and Russell meant that too often we were going for the long punt up the park. When we did build up the attack slowly using JR, Sylla and Dasovic, it was to good effect but far too often there wasn't enough bite at the final touch in the box as Killie defended in numbers. We had some chances though. A Jones header went over and Tommy tried a cheeky chip from 20yds out that went just wide (think of McMahon's goal against Aberdeen a few years ago). But Saints were looking slow and giving away stupid free-kicks and throw-ins rather than try and keep possession.
And of course MoMo (about the only player trying to play football on the ground from defence), got another yellow when he and Innes indulged in some handbags at dawn, although to be fair to him he did seem to be on the receiving end.
Second half was just dire. Even worse than last week with Killie hitting the post twice in the opening minutes. Jones had a shot but there was little Saints action as cracks began to show in the defence and the wingers vanished. Most disappointing of all was the form of Dods and Weir. The pair acted like a bunch of spoilt brats, arguing constantly and unable / unwilling to take the game by the scruff of the neck and command their area. Christ you'd think they'd never played together before. Bollan was solid at the back but time and time again didn't pass to Tommy to try and create something up the wing, instead settling for a punt forward. Even worse was Main who totally failed to command his area and on 2 or 3 occasions was almost caught napping by a sharp Killie forward.
In midfield Russell was replaced by Kiegan on the hour and didn't look too happy about it and McCulloch came on for Tommy, with both youngsters at least willing to try and get forward a bit and play football. Pope came on for O'Neill with 20 minutes to go but despite the attacks it was obvious the game was heading for a draw as Saints began to tire rather quickly and the lack of wingers (with JR moving more to the centre) meaning that the fast flowing football was all but forgotten.
In the end a point was no more than we deserved and we were lucky to get that.
MoMo was my MoM but praise to for JR, Dasovic and Jones who kept trying to the end and for Tommy for scoring a cracker of a goal. But we've got 10 days until the cup-tie and we badly need to kick some of the lazier arses in the team if we want to continue a cup run.
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| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Hibs | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 16 |
| Rangers | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 5 | 12 |
| Celtic | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 12 |
| Dunfermline | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| Kilmarnock | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 7 |
| Dundee | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Saints | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Aberdeen | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Hearts | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| St. Mirren | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 3 |
| Motherwell | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| Dundee United | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
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