Temple Of Saints - That's It Then

Scottish Premier League - 20/05/2001

Pars 0 Saints 0 League Table Here

Team: Main,Troy,Lardboy,Dasovic,McCluskey,Dods,Marco,Tommy,Pope, Crozier,Flash
Subs: Cuthbert,Paddy,Weir,Ferry,Fotheringham

So that's the end of the season and yet again some dodgy refereeing and a failure to kill off a team means we don't leave with the three points. On the plus side there was plenty of commitment and fight amongst the players (even Lardboy who managed to escape a total booing off the park) and whilst it's been a disappointing campaign there was a lot on the park today to give some hope for next season.

With suspensions and injuries galore there were a few changes to the line-up. Lardboy came back at left-back today allowing Flash to move up to left-wing. Crozier was in for JR on the right and Tommy and Pope played up front in a 4-4-2 formation whilst McCluskey came in for Cap'n Jim. There was a surprising change on the bench as well with the Ginger Bomber left out and Paddy given his slot, although Nathan was in the ground and came onto the park to take the applause of the Saints fans.

The opening exchanges in the game saw Saints defending deeply just like last week although the Pars were struggling to find a way past. It took 10 minutes before we even forced a shot on goal. Crozier won a free kick on the right at the edge of the box and Pope's square ball to Lardboy was sclaffed wide. Even then we were under some pressure although 5 minutes later we should have taken the lead when Jesus' long clearance was picked up by Tommy. He ran forward and rounded the keeper only to take the ball too wide and when he did shoot send it over the bar.

Four minutes later and Tommy Love's pace beat the Pars again but this time Skinner decided to up-end him and started Dallas on his booking spree. Bollan's free-kick met Dods who flicked the ball onto Dasovic at the back post only for his low shot to go just wide. A couple of minutes later and it was Flash Forsyth's turn to miss when a Crozier knockback across the goal was missed by Flash and ran across an empty goalmouth.

The bookings tally increased just after that when Tod was yellow carded for a blatant foul on Tommy and was lucky to escape a red card with Tommy set to run through on goal. Dallas didn't endear himself to the Saints fans when he missed a repeat of the challenge a couple of minutes later when Flash sent Tommy off on a run. Saints were getting enough of the ball and Marco and Dasovic were looking good in midfield (with the former getting plenty of backing from the Saints fans) and whilst the left wing looked OK, Crozier tended too much to hang back with Troy on the right side to give us any real penetration. Tommy and Pope were doing fine but we always looked to be a man short going forward.

The second-half started OK though with some early pressure from us but little pace up front (apart from Tommy). Dods picked up the first Saints yellow 10 minutes into the half for a foul on Nicolson on the edge of the box but Main did well to hold the free kick.

The game was livening up though and the last half hour saw plenty of action. First Bullen beat the offside trap but with only Main to beat he managed to put the ball over the bar from 12 yards out. Then just after Crozier was replaced by Paddy (with Pope moving to the right wing) we had our first penalty claim when Tommy was bundled to the ground.

At the other end the Pars hit the crossbar when we failed to pick up a cross from the left. We survived that though and a minute later should have taken the lead. Paddy fed a neat through ball to Tommy on the left and he got behind the defence and into the box. He took too long over the shot though and although he chipped the keeper the Pars headed the ball off the line.

Pope's corner was headed over by McCluskey just after that and then St. Sandy put on Fotheringham for Forsyth. He moved to the centre of midfield and Marco to the left wing. With 10 minutes to go Dallas was called into action again when Caveman Ferguson clashed with Tommy in front of the away fans and elbowed the Saints winger in the groin. Cue a yellow card whilst Matthai and several other Pars were let off despite an attempt to start World War 3.

The ref was taken off all our Xmas card lists 2 minutes later when Pope dribbled the ball into the box from the right wing only to be hauled down. As blatant a penalty as you'll get but that's not good enough for our Shug.

With 2 minutes to go it looked like all the good work was for nothing. A Dods foul on a Pars diver looked to be on the edge of the box and Dallas awarded a free-kick. Then the linesman flags so Dallas goes over and decides the bribe was enough so gives the penalty. At least some justice was done when Crawford did a JR and hit the post with the spot-kick.

Not the worst end-of-season match and at least we tried to play some decent fitba when not being clobbered by the Fife inbreeds. The defence played well enough and despite the lack of a striker we made some good chances. Fotheringham looked good when he came on and along with Forsyth, McClune and Crozier there are plenty of good players coming through the ranks. MoM for me was Marco - after the week he's had he looked settled and confident in midfield and seems to be developing some degree of understanding with Dasovic.

Still only 69 days till it starts all over again.......

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