Temple Of Saints - End of Part One

Scottish Premier League - 02/01/2001

Pars 0 Saints 0 League Table Here

Team: Main,Dods,Bollan,Weir,Frail,Sylla,Dasovic,O'Neill, Parker,Paddy,Pope
Subs: Cuthbert,JR,Nathan,McCulloch,Forsyth

Well at least we didn't get beat but yet again it was a case of Saints missing far too many chances in front of goal and at times giving the appearance of never having played together. We're making too many stupid mistakes and causing so many problems for ourselves that it's a miracle we're not bottom of the table.

Kane and McCluskey failed to make the team, so apart from Frail starting in place of McCulloch (as Saints went for a flat back four), the only other change was the dropping of Tommy for JR. It begs the question why after spending most of last season bemoaning the lack of any naturally left-sided player that St. Sandy drops the only one we've signed.

With a large travelling support there to take the piss out of the so-called witty antics of Sammy the Tammy and his combine harvester routine (when does bear-hunting start?), Saints almost got off to a dream start. Pope, playing on the left wing broke free and after riding a couple of leg-break tackles, sent a cross into the box. Nobody picked it up until it came to the back post and Nick Dasovic was running in. Unfortunately with an open goal in front of him and all the time in the world Dazza managed to screw the ball wide. And this was only the 2nd minute.

Saints were enjoying a fair bit of possession but with little to show for it other than a Paddy shot a few minutes later. The game quickly settled into the usual bogged-down-in-midfield affair that the Pars matches always seem to end up in with the central midfield pairing of Dasovic and O'Neill having a howler of the game. Of course the defence didn't help much either - Frail looked short of pace and Bollan was what we've come to expect these days (and the fans are noticing it too going by the anti-BoBo shouts that were heard during the match). Weir and Dods were showing some form at least - although they seemed to be up against a man-mountain in the Pars striker. Unfortunately their distribution meant a series of long balls forward to the strikers (usually Kiegan) who were well closed down by the home defence.

The bright hopes seemed to be Pope and MoMo who were both playing some neat stuff with Sylla especially going for long cross field runs (well there wasn't exactly a barrowload of options for him to pass to). He nearly put us in front in the 20th minute as well when a Bollan corner to the back post came to him and he let rip with a cracking volley only to see the ball blocked. Up front Paddy was having some luck - a couple of times he went on a good run only to see the ball saved. But again too often his first touch let him down and he lost possession. With 26 minutes gone, he got onto the end of a long ball from defence. Running through with just the keeper to beat he, for some reason, went wide and ended up with the shot being easily blocked. Even then he got the rebound but his cross to O'Neill saw the latter's effort blocked as well. He's not the worst player in the side just now but for a striker, some of his misses and ball control are almost criminal.

Pars didn't offer too much in the way of attack. Main had a couple of simple saves to make and although he wasn't helping things with his poor distribution (including a nightmare of a dribble out of the box just before half-time) he wasn't helped much by either of the backs. This mightn't have been too bad if they were pushing forward but neither Frail or Bollan rarely ventured over the halfway line.

The second half saw Saints repeat their form of Saturday and start to defend deeply. The Pars weren't up to much with little in the way of clear shots but it wasn't doing much for my nerves.

Our best effort came after 10 minutes when a rare corner saw Dods header blocked. Then a neat through ball from Pope saw Kiegan run wide on the left only for his angled chip to go just over. Ref Willie Young wasn't doing us any favours either when MoMo (or "Scotland's dirtiest player" if you read the Retard) picked up a very soft booking on the hour mark for a shove. Which when you consider the offence by Ferguson the Neanderthal a few minutes later when he chopped down Kiegan on the byeline, it makes you wonder why the ex-Hun only saw yellow.

Pope went off with 25 minutes to go after taking what looked like an elbow knock. Marco came on to replace him. Then Kiegan was replaced five minutes later by Nathan although it has to be said that Parker wasn't playing that badly and he didn't look too chuffed at being subbed.

We had our best chance of the half just after that - MoMo who despite showing some inconsistency still had the skill to turn the game picked up the ball on the right and broke down the field. A quick cut back inside a stationary Pars defender and he sent a beautiful curving drive past the keeper only for the ball to come back off the junction of the crossbar and post - even then it rolled across the goalmouth only inches away from the line. If that wasn't enough a Paddy cutback a minute later saw Sylla try a looping lob from the same position only for the ball to go just wide.

Nathan was causing some problems but a lack of decent balls supplied from midfield meant he was having to do a lot of his own running. He won a free kick just outside the box with 10 minutes left but Bollan took it and summed up his current form with a weak shot which went miles wide of the post. Pathetic really. Paddy had another shot before Saints rode out the usual last minute scares including a chip which Main just tipped over before Willie Young decided against waiting for hell to freeze over (which by my reckoning is when someone would have scored) and blew time up.

MoM for me was Sylla - one of the few entertainers on the park today. Dods and Weir were solid enough but Frail and Bollan are weak links. In midfield Pope is looking better each week and Dasovic had a better second-half. O'Neill though doesn't fit into a central role and up front although Paddy wasn't too bad we're still missing too many chances.

Still we could be in a worse league position and at least there's a winter shutdown to get the players introduced to one another again.

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