Temple Of Saints - Not Sexy But Who Cares

Scottish Premier League - 25/11/2000

Killie 0 Saints 2 League Table Here

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

There's been a lot of talk about the lack of sexy football on show from Saints recently. At least today shows that there is still hope - despite the same squad as last week there was a bit of a change in the formation today with Sylla given the free role in the legendary "hole" behind the front two whilst Pope and Evers dropped to the bench and allowed McCulloch to take over on the left side of midfield. And to an extent it worked. Whilst not wonderfully sexy there was plenty of good aspects to the play today - Parker and Sylla were a joy to watch at times and McCulloch despite some poor first touches showed that he's more than capable of stepping into the first team. Of course there was the usual defensive frailties (more later) but we played well and got the points.

The first half was a pretty drab affair. A wet pitch does not good skilful football make and there was a real lack of entertainment and skill from both sides with passes going astray, panicky clearances to the opposition and a first touch worthy of Curran at his worst. It was ironic given Saints nervy start that the first clear chance came to us when Kiegan was the first to react to a poor clearance from the home team. Unfortunately his run into the box only ended up in the shot being saved by Marshall.

At the other end Killie had a couple of shots but despite the poor Saints defending the goal wasn't in any real danger. It was worrying to see Saints defend so deeply and stand off Killie so much though.

Saints had another decent shot not long after. MoMo did some great running on the right and his cross was knocked back in by a Kane flick for Russell only to see Jack send his shot wide. Then another cross from "Le Mo" saw Dasovic totally miss the ball - summed the game up really. The scrappy play of course wasn't helped too much by Rowbotham's performance with a willingness to let heavy challenges go at times and at others play at being Mr. Fussy. Case in point was when Saints broke up the park just after the half-hour mark. Kiegan was through but was pulled back. Then Mitchell goes to kick the ball away but does the ref take any action - nope. Not that the free-kick came to much with Kane missing the goal - something he repeated not long after.

Just before the break Killie nearly equalised. A break down the right saw Bollan and the backtracking McCulloch stand back. The cross gets put across the goal and only the poor shot from Mahood prevented the goal. Kiegan was the first name to go into the book after the linesman signalled he'd used his elbows. Possibly harsh but he has to learn to control his temper more.

The second-half was a different story with a pep-talk from St. Sandy during the break working wonders in the side. With only 5 minutes gone, a Kane through ball found Sylla who proceeded to run into the box. He dodged the first couple of tackles but before getting his shot in was taken out. Rowbotham decided to play fair and pointed to the spot. The away support were then treated to Le Mo telling Kiegan he was taking the kick only for Parker to run up snatch the ball and take over. A quick run up and the ball went high and to the right of Marshall to make it 1-0.

The Saints midfield were starting to look a bit sharper now - both Kane and Dasovic were winning more of the loose balls and Russell was showing some good pace up the left. Just after the first goal he broke free only to see his lob go just over. Elsewhere in the team McCluskey was doing brilliantly at covering in defence whilst Dods at right-back was getting forward more and more. And in the middle Le Mo, whilst not putting in that many challenges was creating plenty of opportunities going forward in the "hole". The hour mark saw Main have to look sharp when he was almost caught off his line. He looked OK at making the saves today but his kicking and distribution was just awful - far, far too often the ball went straight to the opposition.

Still such worries didn't last too long. A ball through the middle and Kiegan ran wide - with Le Mo in the box he wasn't able to pass. He didn't need to though and after beating two defenders a beautiful angled volley saw the ball go flying past Marshall and into the net. After that the game was fairly end-to-end. With some last-ditch defending from Saints we held on but still saw some great play from the side - Le Mo had a couple of cracking runs the length of the park and seems to be linking up well with Russell and Parker.

At the other end Main made some timely saves although it was plain that Killie badly missed McLaren in the attack.

The ref was still crap though and McCluskey went into the book after a clash with Cocard. Both players reacted and despite it only being a case of handbags at dawn it was the Saints defender that went into the book. JR came on for Russell towards the end and despite Saints being denied another scoring chance when a passback in the Killie 6-yd box wasn't given we held on comfortably for the points.

MoM is difficult to choose. Kiegan and McCluskey both played well although the amount of covering McCluskey was having to do for Bollan was a bit worrying - especially since we weren't exactly attacking much from the left. But for me the standout was Le Mo - sure he acts like a lazy git at times but given the role he was asked to play today it looks like we might have that attacking midfielder we've been looking for.

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