Saints 1 Killie 2 League Table Here
Team: Main,Dods,Bollan,Weir,Frail,Sylla,Dasovic,Kane,
Parker,Paddy,Pope
Subs: Cuthbert,Nathan,McCulloch,O'Neill,McCluskey
What can I say? Yet again Saints have dominated the large part of a game whilst looking as threatening as a Harry Curran tackle. Yet again we've lost a stupid goal through bad defending and managed to miss a penalty (as someone pointed out tonight - the 3 missed penalties have probably made the season meaningless now) and no doubt the same excuses will be put out in the media tomorrow by both players and management. Ah but tonight there was also the added attraction (especially for Sky and the large crowd of kids on a freebie) of watching our defence and so-called inter-fucking-national keeper give away the ball to Killie in the 92nd minute, let them score (thanks BoBo for wonderfully playing them onside), cost us 3 points and all but extinguish any hope amongst the home fans that sexy football will return and win through.
Team was the same as drew (and missed a penalty) at Tannadice. So with a decent pitch we still lacked wingers and relied on the same old faces for any sort of creativity. And from the start you could see Blobby Williamson's tactics for dealing with that as McLaren continued his feud with Sylla from the CIS Cup tie and hacked him as early as the 3rd minute with the obvious intention of getting Le Mo to retaliate. Which he did before checking himself (and being lectured by Weir) and getting off with a row from Rowbotham.
Unfortunately that was about it in terms of action from the opening stages as the swirling wind and strange refereeing decisions combined to frustrate Saints at every opportunity. Not that we were in too much danger with Killie seemingly content to counter-attack. Saints meanwhile were just crap with the only real chance coming after 15 minutes when a Sylla inswinging corner was knocked clear for Pope to take a touch and send a neat shot goalwards which Marshall saved. We really need to work on the set pieces a bit more. We know we haven't scored from a header this season so can we please see some sort of variety to the corner kicks / free kicks rather than just settling for punting the ball into the box and praying.
Killie had a couple of good chances with a Dargo cross missed by everyone in the box, before Le Mo went on a lovely run up the right wing - pulled back by a Killie player on the edge of the box (with Rowbotham strangely waving advantage), he managed to reach the bye line only for his cross to be blocked. With the game so poor in footballing terms by half-time the off the ball grudges were showing through. Not content with kicking at Sylla's heels McLaren managed to escape any sort of punishment for a blatant punch in Frail's bollocks. Then Weir was brought down by Dargo for the first yellow of the game.
Saints started the 2nd half in the same way but playing against the wind meant the passes were finding the forwards a bit better. The centre of midfield was doing OK with Kane having a good game although up front Kiegan was off form and Paddy still seems unable to run onto a through ball, preferring instead to stop and try and turn his opponent. Killie had a free kick which sailed over the bar and then Main made a decent save from Dargo after Weir played him onside.
At the other end though, the hour mark saw Saints win a couple of corners. Bollan took both and eventually Weir on the left wing(!) knocked the ball back in. Le Mo rose up to header the ball down and a Saints striker (I think it was Paddy) got to the ball on the 6yd box only to be pulled down by Marshall. Penalty for Saints but strangely only a yellow for Marshall.
Up steps Pope to take the kick and sends Marshall the wrong way. Unfortunately the other part of Penalty Kicks 101 which he didn't manage to get was the part about the ball (round white thing) going between the posts, not wide.
After that Saints seemed to take a real nosedive in confidence (esp Pope who had a good game apart from the penalty kick). Weir picked up a yellow for a stupid foul then with 25 minutes to go St. Sandy answered the fans calls and put on Nathan for Kiegan with the latter looking none too happy. Almost immediately he managed a good run up the right and got into the box only to see his shot saved. Then Paddy sent a header wide (you knew it was going wide the moment he headed it really).
Bollan was next into the book as things went from bad to worse. Canero crossed from the right, Main missed the ball, the defence failed to clear their lines, a shot took a rebound and Dargo got the ball 2yds out and put it into the net. O'Neill came on for Dasovic (surprisingly) and I'm sorry to say but he doesn't look fit or willing to play in the SPL.
With Saints looking out of it and Killie content to sit back Bollan took a corner on the right, sent the ball over for Weir to head down. It was saved but Paddy was at the back post to drive the ball home.
Now after a performance like that and knowing Killie you'd think we'd be a little bit cautious. Ach bollocks to that. Instead in the 2nd minute of injury time Weir and Dods combine to muck about, the ball goes back to Main, he makes a poor clearance (one of many this evening) to a Killie player who knocks the ball forward. OK fair enough so we play the offside trap as Canero and his mate bear down on goal. But nope Mr Gary "interesting Hearts and Killie" Bollan decides to play them on despite being 10yds wide of them with no hope of catching them. So Canero runs into the box, puts the ball under Main and single-handedly empties the home stands.
Final whistle went a minute later as the boos (from those left) saw the teams off the park although "team" might be too strong a word given the body language of certain players as they ignored one another.
Strangely enough though I managed to dredge up a MoM award with Kane just beating out Le Mo for at least putting in a gutsy 90 minutes and playing some neat passes. Pity he's probably so shagged out now that he'll be next to useless come Tuesday night. Mind you with the rest of that team that was on show tonight he might be all we have to offer.
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| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Celtic | 26 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 70 | 21 | 69 |
| Hibs | 27 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 49 | 18 | 58 |
| Rangers | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 53 | 25 | 57 |
| Kilmarnock | 27 | 13 | 4 | 10 | 34 | 36 | 43 |
| Hearts | 27 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 38 | 40 | 36 |
| Dunfermline | 27 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 26 | 34 | 34 |
| Motherwell | 27 | 9 | 5 | 13 | 33 | 41 | 32 |
| Saints | 27 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 27 | 38 | 31 |
| Dundee | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 37 | 33 | 30 |
| Aberdeen | 25 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 25 | 40 | 24 |
| St. Mirren | 27 | 4 | 3 | 20 | 19 | 54 | 15 |
| Dundee United | 27 | 3 | 5 | 19 | 21 | 52 | 14 |
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