Temple Of Saints - Conspiracy Theory Pt 3

Scottish Premier League - 12/08/2000

Pars 1 Saints 1 League Table Here

Team: Main,Sylla,Blaster,Weir,Dods,Dasovic,Tommy,Parker,Jones, Pope,Kane
Subs: Robertson,Russell,McCluskey,Paddy,McCulloch

So we're now three games into the season and already there are signs of real consistency in Saints performances as yet again we drop points thanks to a dodgy goal for the opposition. But taken over the whole 90 minutes we probably shouldn't be surprised given the total disaster of a performance from the man in the middle. Yup David Somers is now officially worse than Stuart Dougal. It was that bad.

With Father Dougal missing through injury Dods came into the centre of defence whilst McCluskey moved up to the bench and Robbo took over from Cuthbert as reserve keeper.

Even from the first minute when Saints were on the attack, we should have had an inkling as to how bad the ref was. A beautiful through ball from Mighty Mo found Pope on a run into the box. One foul and we await the ref to point to the spot. But no penalty.

The early stages saw Saints look good going forward with Parker and Pope providing good support to Jones. On the downside though Tommy was posted missing for most of the time as he spent far too much time in defence. And as for the Saints defence we were caught sleeping several times with Blaster and Dods both looking well off-form.

With 15 minutes gone Petrie was stretchered off with a broken leg after an innocuous challenge with Kane for a 50-50 ball. Saints after this began to exert some pressure with Parker coming close and then Kane sending a 20yd shot just over after a superb layoff from Goalden Graeme (who is looking a lot better than last season it has to be said). Blaster sent a free-kick straight at the keeper after Kiegan was felled whilst through on goal (but surprise, surprise no red card for the Pars no 5), and Dasovic saw a shot well saved.

Kane went off with what looked to be a muscle strain and was replaced by Russell. Two minutes later and he saw a header just tipped over the bar by the well-dodgy Pars keeper. It wasn't all one-way though and a Pars break just after that saw Main well beaten. But in an attempt to further boost his claim to cult stardom amongst the Saintees, Oor Sylla pops up on the line for an acrobatic clearance to prevent a certain goal. Back at the other end and Kiegan was getting kicked all over the place. The ref though only awarded a free-kick for every 10th foul and the next Blaster effort saw him dummy the ball and allow Pope to send a floating chip into the box only to see Dods narrowly head wide.

Then it went a bit pear-shaped with Somers deciding to get in on the act. First of all Jones picks up a yellow for what was about his first foul of the game. Then a Pars attack in injury time saw Weir go within 10 yards of Crawford in the box. The Pars striker dived but with Somers waving play on (having been only 15-yds from play) the ball was played back up the park only for the ref to stop play whilst he consulted so-called assistant. Now with the linesman 60-yds away from play there's no way he could have had a better view than the ref. But no he said Weir pulled Crawford down so the ref changed his mind and gave the penalty which made it 1-0.

St. Sandy came onto the pitch at the half-time whistle, to keep Weir and Jones from attacking the ref and it was a fired-up Saints side that came out for the second-half.

Of course the ref was still crap but there was no way even he could possibly ignore the incident 5 minutes later. Jones sent a through ball to Pope who got behind the Pars defence and into the box only to be chopped down. Penalty given but being a crap ref only a yellow card was shown to the defender. Up stepped Goalden Graeme to make it 1-1, and blow a cheeky kiss to the home fans !!

The game was fairly end-to-end now and the Pars almost got their second from a close header but Crawford managed to get in the way and deflect it over the bar. Then Craig Russell saw his shot go just wide. Saints put Paddy on for the ineffective Tommy only for him to be just as bad.

Pope was booked for complaining at no second yellow for the Pars thug who tried to murder Kiegan with a two-footed challenge and then Dasovic got booked 3 minutes later for his first offence (although Iain "I used to be a Hun" Ferguson escaped a similar punishment within a minute). We still had plenty of chances to win the game but the legs were obviously tiring. After a Jones block, Sylla saw a 30-yarder go just wide of goal.

Of course Somers wasn't finished and a challenge by Pope on a Pars player although soft meant a second yellow and Saints down to 10 men. Even then we still had a chance to win with Blaster finally waking up and going on a solo run into the box only to have a weak shot saved.

It's another game we should have won despite the terrible refereeing. MoM for me was McBride who until he was sent off had a good game and looked to be more of a mature player this year. Jones is doing a great job holding the ball and Kiegan, despite still being a bit lightweight is showing some nice touches. Tommy was again disappointing but I feel he needs to push up more rather than drop back to get the ball. In defence both Bollan and Dods need a kick up the arse.

As for the Pars, well it was nice to be reminded of just why it was such a good feeling to see their cheating ways relegated 2 years ago. Here's hoping it happens to them again.

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