Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 27/01/01
Scottish Cup 3rd Round - 27/01/01Saints 0 Pars 0 (Replay set for Tuesday Feb 6th 7.45pm)
Team:
Main,Dods,Bollan,Weir,Frail,Sylla,Dasovic,O'Neill,Parker,Paddy,Pope
Subs: Cuthbert,Tommy,Nathan,Kane,McCluskey
Surprise, surprise we have to visit the delights of East End Park a week on Tuesday after a fairly inept footballing performance from Saints saw us fail to kill off a Pars side that hardly managed to piece together an attack for the whole 90 minutes. Still I suppose we should be grateful that some of the crap play from Saints didn't end up costing us a goal. And if this report seems a bit brief blame it on the almost total lack of action at McD.
Although it was the same team from the Pars match before the winter break, St. Sandy did freshen up the bench with Tommy in place of JR and Kane and McCluskey making a return from injury. Apart from that though it was the same old faces in the same strange positions (Pope a left winger?).
A fairly decent crowd saw Saints get off to a bright start and as early as the first minute a quickly taken free kick saw Le Mo released down the right wing only for his cross to be a fairly weak one and easily dealt with. Not that there was much in the way of support from midfield in the box. That was the pattern for most of the opening stages with Saints labouring to get the ball forward (occasionally they even played it along the ground in some sort of strange tactic to avoid the lanky Pars defence) only for the finish to be weak / non-existent. And even when a good cross was put into the box, far too often it was targeted within the 6yd box for the Pars genetically modified keeper to easily catch (possibly one of the few times that the Fife inbreeding policy has managed to produce an improvement on the human form)
The Pars offered little in the way of attack with Moss the only real danger, although a blind man positioned 520 miles from the ground could see that if we'd bothered to close down Cap'n Caveman the ex-Death Star Terminator, in the middle of the park even that threat would have been removed. Apart from a Bollan free kick which the Pars defence easily dealt with it was the half-hour mark before Saints came close to hitting the target. Kiegan ran through the middle and although he should have passed, the Thomson tackle saw the ball break to Bollan. With all the subtlety and sophistication for which he is known he toe-poked it first time and somehow found Pope on the wing. He got to the bye-line and sent a cross in only for Lazarus to header it wide.
That was it for the first half with Saints happy to punt the ball forward and play the long ball game. We did try some normal play and Le Mo was by far the best player on the park and there is the start of an understanding with Frail at right-back who had a solid enough game. Central midfield was poor and the left wing non-existent leaving Paddy and Kiegan the thankless task of trying to conjure up a miracle from the attack.
We almost got it after 47 minutes as well. A nice break through the middle saw the ball sent wide to Kiegan. He got into the box and beat Skerla only to be knocked down. A soft one but a definite penalty. Up steps Kiegan and sends a rocket shot past the GM keeper. And then back off the bar....Bollocks says the home support. It got worse for Kiegan just after as the game came to life. Fouled on the halfway line by Skerla he had a little kick back (it could be argued he was trying to get the ball) only for the Pars player to lash back, a free for all develop (step forward Messrs Sylla and Bollan for some good handbag shoves). It could have been a red for both players but the ref saw sense and settled for a yellow each. Closely followed by Cap'n Caveman for his 43124th foul of the 2nd half.
Saints had a lot of possession and control by now but little in the way of chances and it was only in the last 20 minutes that we even came close to scoring. Kano came on for the poor O'Neill and after Bollan made a last-ditch tackle in the box to stop a goal Frail sent a nice through ball for Kiegan only for the youngster to miss with a narrow angled shot. Then a minute later Paddy tried to turn in the box and shoot only for the ball to be blocked. It went out for a throw-in and after a quick 1-2 Bollan sent a great cross into the box and only for Nick Dasovic, left unmarked, to see his header well held by the GM keeper.
Worst was to come though and after a complete stramash in the Pars box with 7 minutes to go, the ball broke to Kiegan 4yds out. The keeper got to the ball but even when it squirmed free Parker couldn't put it into the net. Just one of those days. Tommy and Nathan came on for Pope and Paddy but there wasn't really time for them to have any impact.
MoM for me was MoMo - a few back heels and a couple of flicks meant it was a pretty quiet game for him but he still entertained more than the rest of the side put together.
As for the replay there are a few simple rules to practically guarantee success -
....do all that and we'll win easily.
And no excuses from the players. It's bad enough drawing with the Pars without having to put the Saints fans through another wonderfully witty Sammy the Tammy routine again !!!!
Ach well just think. February and we're still in the cup !
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