Saints 0 Killie 1
Team:
Main,Sylla,Blaster,Weir,Kernaghan,Pope,Tommy,McCulloch,Jones,Hartley,Kane
Subs: Robertson,Parker,Dods,Crozier,Russell
Well after the league match 10 days ago tonight's result should come as no surprise. Yes we made chances and had two decent penalty claims turned down but at the end of the day we let ourselves down in front of goal, in possession and far too many Saints players were just not up to the game. And the manager can't escape criticism as well - for all the talk of sexy football at the start of the season Jones spent far too much of the game up front on his own with little or no support - can someone please tell the midfield that attacking football might mean that occasionally they have to go forward.
Dasovic was ruled out but Kane and Kernaghan returned to action whilst Marc McCulloch took over from O'Neill in midfield.
The game was fairly even to start with although we could have taken the lead after 5 minutes when good build-up play from Tommy and Jones ended up with the ball at JRs feet only for the player to sclaff his shot. Killie came back at us and saw a shot go just over the bar.
Then 10 minutes later they should have taken the lead when McLaren (who is no doubt in line for a totally undeserved media sympathy vote after some idiots in the home support started calling him Junkie), chipped Main. With the ball going over his head Scotland's No 1 (are you watching Mr Brown) got his fingers to it and then caught the ball as he fell backwards - injuring himself in the process.
Saints were back on the attack. A Jones header went wide and then after Pope had been fouled, a JR free kick was well saved although the lack of follow-up amongst the Saints forwards was almost painful. Saints were piling on the pressure though and Pope sent a lovely through ball to Jones feet only for the striker to see his shot go over from a narrow angle. Still it's nice to see that he can play when the ball is given to his feet, as opposed to 2 miles over his head. Then Killie decided to help out and a poor DanDildo passback saw Jones nip in. He slipped the ball under Marshall only to see another defender come back to clear it off the line.
The first penalty claim came just before half-time when JR was pushed to the ground. A soft one maybe but I've seen them given for less. More clear cut was the push on Jones as he tried to reach a JR cross a couple of minutes later but Stuart Dougal (Yup him again) waved play on.
The ref pissed off the fans even more just before the break when despite signalling he'd seen the foul he refused to take action on McLarens foul on Sylla. Still MoMo got his own back a minute later when with his back to the latest Scotland name (Hah !!), he chipped the ball over his head, turned, got past McLaren and started an attack which ended up with him just missing the last pass into the box and ending up shooting weakly at Marshall. Still the East Stand stood to applaud what has to have been the best piece of skill by a Saints player in years.
2nd half went the way most of them do nowadays at McD. A poor start saw Saints lose their grip on the game, although both sides were making heavy weather of it. The hour mark saw Main save from Sally but 10 minutes later the wee Saintee reject (94) got the better when he got onto the end of a McLaren crossfield pass, easily avoided Blasters lunging tackle (God knows why he went in like that) and took his time going into the box and calmly placing the ball under Main.
St. Sandy immediately put on Parker for JR. Nope I don't know why when there were a lot more ineffective players on the park. MoMo then picked up his usual yellow card for a trip on McLaren although somehow the ref totally missed the retaliatory kick from the Killie player that left MoMo limping for the rest of the game.
With 15 minutes left Russell came on for the injured Tommy after the Dane seemed to pick up a hamstring / thigh strain making a tackle on the halfway line (yeah I know there's meant to be a midfield for that). He had the ball in the net when Saints took a quick free kick but of course Stuart Dougal ruled that was unfair as he wasn't ready. Marshall saved the free-kick when it was retaken after another Blaster effort with Jones and Russell both failing to net the rebound.
That was it really as we did the usual pathetic attempts towards the end of the game to snatch some respect. Pope missed a good chance and McCulloch sclaffed an 18 yarder (although to be fair he was one of the better players on the night and at least has some concept of tackling). Weir and Kernaghan managed to pick up yellow cards as well.
MoM for me was Sylla - purely for the moment of one-upmanship in the first half. Mentions to for Weir, McCulloch and Jones - the rest had better get back to the North Inch and start learning some basics or we're in for a very tough season.
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 Stuart Dougal send marks out of 10 to refvote@grange.demon.co.uk or just select a rating and press the button below ::